Weather Blog  Why doesn't it rain salt water?  Why doesn't it
rain salt water?  A reader called me with this question last
week, and it's a really good one. You might think since almost
all our weather in the Northwest comes off the Pacific Ocean,
the storms would be picking up salt water from the ocean as they
generate. We get similar questions during hurricanes -- why
don't they dump 20" of saltwater rain from the Gulf of Mexico?
But no, all the rain -- no matter where in the world it is -- is
freshwater (mostly. See below).    Why? It has to do with the
evaporating process. When water evaporates from the ocean, only
the pure H2O molecules are involved -- it's basically energy
turning the water from liquid state to vapor state. The salt
particles are, in essence, left behind.  I'm not an
oceanographer, but I would assume that means when you've got a
really big storm, like a hurricane, taking in a lot of moisture
from the warm Gulf/ocean waters, the salt content of the water
in its wake is probably a minisc