Why does rain come in drops and not in a continuous stream?

Answer 1

Water exhibits surface tension. Water molecules at the surface attract each other like the rubber molecules in the skin of a basketball. You can even float a needle on water (but must be very careful) and water bugs can walk on water by indenting their padded feet into the water dimples to support their weight. The surface tension tends to pull drops of water into near perfect spheres much as the surface tension of a basketball's skin makes it round as it is inflated. The surface tension breaks up a steady stream into round drops even from a fire hose.

Answer 2

Have you ever lowered the speed of your tap water and see that it longer flows in stream but in drops? It's the same principle.

Because of the cohesive property of the water (water molecules like to attach to each other.) the rainwater will still hold together in drops but the cohesive strength is still not enough to form a non-broken chain of stream straight from the sky to the ground. So the molecules will only hold together in small drops.

Maybe if the rain falls like load of water out of a bucket, they will have enough cohesive force form continuous stream.

Answer 3

They can be produced from a cloud by cohesive forces like a tiny balls inseated of stream flow.