The Other Source of Nitrogen

Water falls from the sky in the form of raindrops - but there is often more than H2O in those tiny spheres...

I have often noticed that the garden seems to grow exceptionally well after a good rain. Of course, there’s nothing too remarkable about this because plants need water, but did you know that rain is also a source of nitrogen?

There’s more than water in rain

We all know that rain is water. We also know that the earth’s atmosphere is about 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, and 1% other stuff. So guess what happens when raindrops are falling through the sky?

Let’s say that on average, a raindrop can be about 2 millimeters in diameter. This sounds small, but that tiny sphere might have 1 million water molecules or more in it. As a result, raindrops has a much greater mass than just about every other type of particle that’s floating around in the atmosphere - which is why they inevitably fall to the ground.