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The leeward side is the side distant from or physically in the lee of the prevailing wind, and typically the drier. In an archipelago windward islands are upwind and leeward islands are downwind of the prevailing winds, such as the trade winds of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
Rainfalls from the southern South Asian monsoon do not make it far past the Himalayas (seen by the snow line at the bottom), leading to an arid climate on the leeward (north) side of the mountain range and the desertification of the Tarim Basin (top). A rain shadow is an area of significantly reduced rainfall behind a mountainous region, on the ...
The leeward edge of an extensive mass of orographic clouds may be quite distinct. On the leeward side of the mountain, the air flowing downward is known as a foehn wind. Because some of the moisture that has condensed on the top of the mountain has precipitated, the foehn (or föhn) is drier, and the lower moisture content causes the descending ...
Foehn wind. A Foehn, or Föhn ( UK: / fɜːn /, US: / feɪn / fayn, [2] [3] US also / fʌn, fɜːrn / fu (r)n [4] [5] ), is a type of dry, relatively warm downslope wind that occurs in the lee (downwind side) of a mountain range. It is a rain shadow wind that results from the subsequent adiabatic warming of air that has dropped most of its ...
Rotor clouds have ragged leeward edges and are dangerously turbulent. A foehn wall cloud may exist at the lee side of the mountains, however this is not a reliable indication of the presence of lee waves. A pileus or cap cloud, similar to a lenticular cloud, may form above the mountain or cumulus cloud generating the wave.
The lift of the air up the side of the mountain results in adiabatic cooling with altitude, and ultimately condensation and precipitation. In mountainous parts of the world subjected to relatively consistent winds (for example, the trade winds ), a more moist climate usually prevails on the windward side of a mountain than on the leeward ...
Windward sides face the east to northeast trade winds and receive much more rainfall; leeward sides are drier and sunnier, with less rain and less cloud cover. [58] In South America, the Andes mountain range blocks Pacific moisture that arrives in that continent, resulting in a desertlike climate just downwind across western Argentina. [59]
As the air descends on the leeward side, it warms again (following the adiabatic lapse rate) and is drier, having been stripped of much of its moisture. Often, a rain shadow will affect the leeward side of a range. As a consequence, large mountain ranges, such as the Andes, compartmentalize continents into distinct climate regions.