The water cycle is a big process. This whole process is called ‘the Hydrological Cycle’. There are many steps in this cycle. The first step that starts off the process is that the sun, the energy source evaporates the water from the ground. This water could be the ground water, the water from the lakes, streams, oceans, runoffs, the water from the plants, water from humans, and so on. Evaporating is the stage of a liquid changing into a gas. This gas is now called water vapor. But water doesn’t just come from lakes, streams and physical bodies of water. Sometimes, it can come of solids that are really cold. For example, if you had dry ice, the dry ice lets go of a type of gas, this gas is also like the water vapor. They go up into the air and turns into water too. This is called sublimation. Sublimation is when a solid turns directly into gas. Next, once all of the water and gas is collected, the water has to fall down. Before coming back to the ground the gas has to change back into water. But you might be wondering ‘Well, how can gas turn back into water?’ it is possible. This is called condensation. Since the clouds are in very high altitudes, it tends to be colder. This makes the gas slowly turn back into water. Finally, the water can come down. This part of the process is called precipitation. Precipitation is when the water comes down back to the land. There are many forms of precipitation. There is snow, hail, rain, sleet, and many others. Once the water comes back to earth it goes back into the bodies of water it came from. But sometimes they go underground. If you didn’t know, the water could go into the soil, underground. Underground there is water too. This is an example of infiltration. Some parts of water might also find their way to another bigger body of water. These are called runoffs. Now, since they are all back to the ground, this cycle has to keep going on. So again there is evaporation then condensation and then lastly precipitation. This is how the water cycle comes about. Isn’t it amazing?