rain shadow

See also: rainshadow

English

Noun

rain shadow (plural rain shadows)

  1. (meteorology) An area of diminished precipitation on the lee side of mountains, caused by the prior release of moisture on the windward side.
    • 1876, Oscar Peschel, The Races of Man: and Their Geographical Distribution‎[1], D. Appleton & Company, page 422:
      As a necessary consequence of this analogous structure, we find no forests eastward of the slopes of the Rocky Mountains and the Cordilleras, or in their "rain shadow," but open steppes...
    • 1896, “Current Notes on Physiography”, in Science, volume 3, number 72, page 732:
      A pronounced 'rain shadow' and chinook belt occur on the plateau district in the lee of these mountains.
    • 2022, Thomas Halliday, Otherworlds, Penguin, published 2023, page 59:
      In the modern day, the Andes cast a very strong rain shadow, resulting in the extreme aridity of the Atacama Desert.

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