Our Atmosphere is the Most Active Water Reservoir

Freshwater stays in the Atmosphere's Ocean, on average, only 9 days.


Water Storage Reservoirs

Water Storage Reservoirs
Source - www.physicalgeography.net

A water molecule, either as a saltwater molecule or as a freshwater molecule, is stored in one of 8 reservoirs at any point in time - the atmosphere, oceans, lakes, soils, glaciers, snowfields and in the ground. Water molecules stay in different reservoirs for different periods of time.


Water in the Atmosphere has the smallest residence time

Average Reservoir Residence Times

Reservoir	Average residence time
Antarctica	20,000 years
Oceans	3,200 years
Glaciers	20 to 100 years
Seasonal snow cover	2 to 6 months
Soil moisture	1 to 2 months
Groundwater: shallow	100 to 200 years
Groundwater: deep	10,000 years
Lakes	50 to 100 years
Rivers	2 to 6 months
Atmosphere	9 days

Residence Time is the time, on average that a water molecule spends in a particular reservoir while moving through the hydrologic cycle.
As shown in the chart, water (in freshwater form) stays the shortest period (just 9 days, on average) in the atmosphere. 
Water in the deep ground, on the other hand has the longest residence time of 10,000 years.


The hydraulic Cycle is a Continuous Cycle
The hydraulic cycle never stops. Any efforts to extract water from the atmosphere will only speed-up the hydraulic cycle and reduce water's residence time, in the atmosphere to less than 9 days, on average.
The impact of human efforts to extract water from the atmosphere on Residence times is unknown as no significant extraction is currently possible or done. The efforts at seeding rain have so far been very localized efforts

Water Makes a Leaf Stand Upright

Leaves wilt, most commonly, when water volume in its cells drop.


Turgidity

A Deflated Balloon
Source - simplystatedbusiness.com

A wilted cell is like a balloon that has lost its air. The pressure of the air inside the balloon, against the balloon wall, provides the rigidity required to maintain the shape of a balloon. 

Healthy Parsley Leaves
Source - faithforeverliving.org

The water inside a cell is like the air in balloons.
As the amount of water drops in a cell, the cell looses its ability to maintain its shape - the cell wilts like a deflated balloon because the pressure (known as Turgor Pressure) from the water in the cell against the cell wall drops.


Many Many cells

Cellular Structure of a Leaf
Source - exploratorium.edu

A leaf is made up of many, many cells. As individual cells loose the water contained in each cell, each cell wilts. Eventually this wilting is clearly visible as a wilted leaf.

Our Regular, Renewable Freshwater Supply comes from the Air

Net daily precipitation of water vapor from the atmosphere is like a "river" from the world's Oceans to land. This 'river' delivers between 40,000 - 47,000 cubic km of freshwater, on average, every year forever.


Rivers seed and sustain life

Rivers are known by two attributes, their length and the amount of water they carry. 
Although the terrain for every river is vastly different, a river performs a function critical to life i. e. it continues to supply freshwater for humans and other living creatures, including, plants and nature's ecosystems.
This is one reason why all early human populations, everywhere in the world, began and multiplied on banks of a river.


Our Renewable Water Supply = 40,000-47,000 cubic km per year

Rain Cloud
Source - ed101.bu.edu

The vast ocean of water that exists in the Earth's atmosphere regularly delivers a river of water to land masses on Earth.
Discounting evaporation from land, net precipitation of water vapor in the form of dew, rain, snow, floods, hail, etc. delivers 40,000-47,000 cubic km of freshwater, on average, every year.
As long as the Sun continues to power the Earth's Hydrologic Cycle, this supply will continue.


Supply distribution is Uneven
Like rivers, however, this supply is not uniformally distributed on all the land mass on Earth or where people and living things congregate.
Also, it does not arrive on a schedule we can bank on. Should this be a problem in the Age of Humans?


The Age of Humans
It is now widely recognized that we humans have shaped the Earth to our preferences with so wide and deep an impact that we now play a very significant (some say predominant) role in 90% of the ecosystems that exist on Earth. The climate crisis is just one BIG example of our impact.
In this Age, is it not possible for humans to intensify and speed-up nature's evaporation-precipitation cycle to the advantage of all ecosystems and life on Earth, including our own?

There's a Freshwater Ocean in the Air!

The global elemental water cycle (aka The Hydrologic Cycle) stores about 3.43 million billion US gallons of freshwater in the atmosphere at any point in time and precipitates the equivalent of 13 million billion US gallons of water on land every year


Our Sun is the Primary Driver of the Water Cycle

The Sun
Source - science.nationalgeographic.com

Freshwater in the atmosphere is water evaporated from land and oceans by the energy contained in sunlight.
Sunlight heats water on land and oceans causing some of it to evaporate into the atmosphere. 
Sunlight also creates air currents that raise the evaporated water vapor higher in the atmosphere and moves the water vapor using wind all over the globe.


Water Evaporation into the Air

Evaporation
Source - aboutcivil.com

Between 496,000 and 460,000 cubic kilometers of water evaporates every year into the atmosphere. 
Of this amount 70,000 -73,000 evaporates from land while 390,000-423,000 evaporates from the oceans every year.
Evaporation adds between 1,359 and 1,260 cubic km daily into the air = the addition of 358,800 - 332,700 billion US gallons of water a day
References:
Principles and Applications of Aquatic Chemistry,By François Morel, Janet G. Hering

Industry, Fresh Water and Sustainable Development, WBCSD & UNEP, 1998Water - Facts & Trends - Ver 2, World Business Council for Sustainable Development