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In the United States, an average of some 70 percent of the annual precipitation returns to the atmosphere by evaporation from land and water surfaces and by transpiration from vegetation. The remaining 30 percent eventually reaches a stream, lake, or ocean, partly by overland runoff during and immediately after rain, and partly by a much slower route through the natural ground-water reservoir.
Rain is key elements in the Earth’s water cycle, which is vital to all life on Earth. Rainfall in the main way that the water in the skies comes down to Earth, where it fills our lakes and rivers, recharges the underground aquifers and provides fresh water for plants, animals and human.
Much of the rain that enters the ground filters down into subsurface water-bearing rocks (aquifers) and eventually reaches lakes, streams, and rivers where these surface-water bodies intercept the aquifers. The portion of the precipitation that reaches the streams produces an average annual stream flow in the United States of approximately 1,200 billion gallons a day. By comparison, the Nation's homes, farms, and factories withdraw and use about 400 billion gallons a day.
The amount of precipitation that falls around the world may range from less than 0.1 inch per year, in some deserts, more than 900 inches per year in the tropics. One of the driest spots on Earth is Lquique, Chile, where no rain fell for a period of 14 years. The world’s wettest place, Mt. Waialeale, Hawaii, where rain average of more than 451 inches of rain each year, and more than 642 inches fell from July 1947 to July 1948. Cherrapunji, India, holds the single year record of 904 inches measured in 1861.
Water resources are sources of water that are useful or potentially useful. Uses of water include agricultural, industrial, household, recreational and environmental activities. The majority of human uses require fresh water.