precipitous adj
1. done with very great haste and without due deliberation; "hasty marriage seldom proveth well"- Shakespeare; "hasty makeshifts take the place of planning"- Arthur Geddes; "rejected what was regarded as an overhasty plan for reconversion"; "wondered whether they had been rather precipitate in deposing the king" [syn: hasty, overhasty, precipitate, precipitant]
2. characterized by precipices; "a precipitous bluff"
3. extremely steep; "an abrupt canyon"; "the precipitous rapids of the upper river"; "the precipitous hills of Chinese paintings"; "a sharp drop" [syn: abrupt, sharp]

Precipitous \Pre*cip"i*tous\, a. [L. praeceps, -cipitis: cf. OF. precipiteux. See Precipice.]
1. Steep, like a precipice; as, a precipitous cliff or mountain.
2. Headlong; as, precipitous fall.
3. Hasty; rash; quick; sudden; precipitate; as, precipitous attempts. --Sir T. Browne. ``Marian's low, precipitous `Hush!''' --Mrs. Browning. -- Pre*cip"i*tous*ly, adv. -- Pre*cip"i*tous*ness, n.

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In meteorology, precipitation (also known as one of the classes of hydrometeors, which are atmospheric water phenomena) is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravity. Two processes, possibly acting together, can lead to air becoming saturated: cooling the air or adding water vapour to the air. Generally, precipitation will fall to the surface; an exception is Virga which evaporates before reaching the surface. Precipitation forms as smaller droplets coalesce via collision with other rain drops or ice crystals within a cloud.

Moisture overriding associated with weather fronts is an overall major method of precipitation production. If enough moisture and upward motion is present, precipitation falls from convective clouds such as cumulonimbus and can organize into narrow rainbands. Where relatively warm water bodies are present, for example due to water evaporation from lakes, lake-effect snowfall becomes a concern downwind of the warm lakes within the cold cyclonic flow around the backside of extratropical cyclones. Lake-effect snowfall can be locally heavy. Thundersnow is possible within a cyclone's comma head and within lake effect precipitation bands. In mountainous areas, heavy precipitation is possible where upslope flow is maximized within windward sides of the terrain at elevation. On the leeward side of mountains, desert climates can exist due to the dry air caused by compressional heating. The movement of the monsoon trough, or intertropical convergence zone, brings rainy seasons to savannah climes.

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