CBSE Class 9 Answered

Water vapour rises high up in the sky, gets cooled and condenses to form clouds. Further cooling of clouds, results in the formation of rain clouds which make droplets of water. In cold regions, water drops in sky freezes to form snow resulting in snowfall. The water which falls from clouds as rain or snow is called precipitation.

Precipitation falls as snow when the air temperature is below 2 °C. If the temperature is warmer than 2 °C then the snowflake will melt and fall as sleet rather than snow, and if it's still warmer, it will be rain.

Hail is a form of solid precipitation consisting of balls or irregular lumps of ice, each of which is called a hailstone.