Rain Shadows and Weather Extremes – Helping Elementary Students Understand Weather Patterns, Rain Shadows and Weather Extremes

A rain shadow is an arid area on the side of a mountain range that is downward (leeward) from prevailing winds.  As wind moves humid air toward the mountains, the air is pushed higher in the atmosphere by the slope of the mountains.  As the air rises, it cools and water vapor in the air condenses.  Much of the water falls as precipitation as the air continues to rise up the windward slope of the mountains.  By the time air moves over the other side of the mountains, it has lost most of its humidity and so it does not rain much on the leeward side.  The rain shadow effect is what causes the great difference in rainfall between Sequim (pronounced “Squim”, sounds like squid) and Quinault (pronounced “kwin-AWLT”), which are on opposite sides of the Olympic Mountains in the state of Washington.

Check out this map of state annual rainfall totals.  You can see how dry it is around the Sequim area, and how wet it is on the southwest side of the Olympics.

There are many examples of rain shadows around the Unites States and the world.  In the United States, the biggest rain shadow is just east of the Cascade and Sierra Nevada mountain ranges, covering most of western Washington, eastern Oregon, Nevada and Utah.  Death Valley is one of the driest places on Earth because it is in the rain shadow of the two mountain ranges.

The image below can help elementary students visualize the weather pattern that creates rain shadows.

source: Wikipedia Commons: This file has been (or is hereby) released into the public domain by
its author, Bariot at the English Wikipedia project. This applies worldwide.

Weather patterns can be a fascinating topic for elementary students.  To learn more about how weather patterns are covered in the Weather and Water Unit from Seeds of Science/Roots of Reading®, follow this link.

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