Water in the warm ocean evaporates and rises as water vapour., The prevailing wind that blows across the warm ocean picks up lots of water vapour, so air becomes warm and moist., The prevailing wind carries the warm, moist air towards the high mountains. So the warm moist air is forced to rise along the mountain slope., Rising warm moist air cools and reaches its dew point and condensation occurs at the level of condensation, forming clouds., When water droplets become too heavy, they return to Earth's surface as relief rainfall at the windward side of the mountain., Rising air at the peak gradually cools down and becomes dry and sinks along the leeward side of the mountain., At the leeward side, where rainfall is low or absent because of the sinking cold dry air, deserts are usually found. This is called the rain shadow which is caused by the rain shadow effect.

Relief Rainfall

by
Print
Embed

Leaderboard

Visual style

Options

Switch template

Continue editing: ?