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Science 4: Rain Shadow Effect 80 Views
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Description:
Rain, unlike a vampire, casts a shadow. But we're not here to tell you about that. The rain shadows we're talking about are actually when rain gets trapped on one side of a mountain. Learn more about it in this video.
Transcript
- 00:04
[Coop and Dino singing]
- 00:13
There are tons of upsides to living near a mountain range... [Mountain range and man waterskiing]
- 00:16
Winter skiing, summer hiking, mountain biking, rock climbing, snowboarding, dressing up in
- 00:21
Wookie costumes and tricking people into thinking you're a peaceful yeti living in the hills…
- 00:25
…Maybe don't do that. [Lion and Yeti in museum display]
Full Transcript
- 00:26
You don't want to be captured and stuck in a natural history museum.
- 00:29
But if you happen to live on the side of a mountain range – specifically, on the opposite
- 00:33
side of the ocean – then another plus for you is you probably don't get a whole lot of rain.
- 00:38
Though it also might mean you live in a desert…in which case, a little rain once in a while [Man laying on the desert floor]
- 00:42
probably wouldn't hurt.
- 00:43
Anyway, what we're talking about here is something called the rain shadow effect.
- 00:47
What this effect describes is the dramatic difference in rain between two sides of a
- 00:51
mountain range – specifically, how one side gets plenty of rain, and the other side gets,
- 00:56
well, not so much at all… [Rain falling on one side of mountain]
- 00:58
Man…what a rain hog.
- 01:00
But why does this happen?
- 01:02
What conditions do we need for the rain shadow effect to occur?
- 01:05
Well, first, we need a mountain range.
- 01:07
That part should be pretty obvious since mountains are in the definition. [Goat on a mountain side]
- 01:11
Then on one side of that mountain range, we need an ocean.
- 01:14
Lastly, you need wind blowing from the ocean towards the mountains. [Wind blows Coop over into the ocean]
- 01:18
Alright, now that we've got all our prerequisites in order, let's get to makin' a rain shadow.
- 01:24
We've broken it down into three easy steps:
- 01:26
Step one is all about evaporation.
- 01:28
When water from the ocean evaporates, we get moist air. [Ocean water evaporates]
- 01:32
This moist air is then pushed towards the base of the mountains by the wind.
- 01:35
Step two is all about rising.
- 01:38
When the water moisture in the air meets the mountains, the wind blows it against them.
- 01:43
And since it can't exactly magically travel through the mountains, it tries to go over
- 01:48
instead.
- 01:49
So, this water moisture gets pushed up, rising to the top of the mountains. [Water moisture pushed up the mountain]
- 01:53
And as it rises, it cools, becoming clouds.
- 01:56
So now we've got clouds, but what else is happening?
- 01:59
Well, the air is cooling off, and cooler air can't hold as much moisture as warmer air.
- 02:05
So as this air continues to cool, rise, and travel over the mountains, it has to ditch
- 02:10
some of that moisture. [Cloud becomes darker and begins to rain]
- 02:11
That ditched moisture comes down as rain, which just happens to be step three.
- 02:16
This effect is why many places that are in between a mountain range and the ocean, like
- 02:20
Vancouver, Canada, get plenty of rain.
- 02:23
They're located on the side of the mountains called the "windward side" since the wind
- 02:27
is blowing at it.
- 02:29
So once all of this wind makes its way over the mountain to the leeward side of the mountains, [Wind moves to leeward side of mountain]
- 02:33
there's pretty much no moisture in the air left.
- 02:36
And that right there is what's called the “rain shadow,” created by, you guessed
- 02:40
it, the rain shadow effect.
- 02:42
The rain shadow effect explains why a place like San Francisco, California has so much [Car blowing in the wind in San Francisco]
- 02:47
more rain than a place like Reno, Nevada.
- 02:50
Neat, huh?
- 02:51
And hey, don't worry, Reno.
- 02:52
You've got other cool things.
- 02:53
Like…the National Automobile Museum!
- 02:55
Maybe someday, we'll make a video about that. [Woman standing in National Automobile Museum]
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