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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.

Language:
English Language

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]

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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