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:
“If you meet a sectary, or a hostile partisan, never recognize the dividing lines; but meet on what common ground remains,—if only that the sun shines, and the rain rains for both; the area will widen very fast, and ere you know it the boundary mountains, on which the eye had fastened, have melted into air.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Erasmus was the light of his century; others were its strength: he lighted the way; others knew how to walk on it while he himself remained in the shadow as the source of light always does. But he who points the way into a new era is no less worthy of veneration than he who is the first to enter it; those who work invisibly have also accomplished a feat.”
—Stefan Zweig (18811942)