A rain shadow is a dry area on the lee back side of a mountainous area. The mountains block the passage of rain-producing weather systems casting a "shadow" of dryness behind them.
As shown by the diagram to the right, the incoming warm and moist air is "pulled" by the prevailing winds towards the top of the mountains where it condenses and precipitates before it crosses the top. The air, without much moisture left, advances behind the mountains creating a dryer side called "rain shadow."
Read more about Rain Shadow: Description, Regions of Notable Rain Shadow
Famous quotes containing the words rain and/or shadow:
“Let me have wisdom, Beauty, wisdom and passion,
Bread to the soul, rain when the summers parch.
Give me but these, and though the darkness close
Even the night will blossom as the rose.”
—John Masefield (1878–1967)
“O love, my love! if I no more should see
Thyself, nor on the earth the shadow of thee,
Nor image of thine eyes in any spring,—
How then should sound upon Life’s darkening slope
The ground-whirl of the perished leaves of Hope,
The wind of Death’s imperishable wing?”
—Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828–1882)