are mountains dry or moist
As moist wind rises on the windward side and descends on the leeward side of a mountain,smooth and layered(lens-shaped) lenticular clouds form on the leeward side of mountains.They remain apparently stationary as the cloud is forming continuously in the same place. Rating Newest Oldest. Best Answer: the leeward side of the mountain will cause the moist air mass to rise up into the atmosphere. if the mountains are high enough, the air mass full form clouds, possibly cumulonimbus storm clouds. generally what happens is that the moisture becomes too condensed in the atmosphere for the clouds to hold up. It means that, on the weather side of the mountain, the air cools down much slower than what it warms up on the leeward side. The result is a dry and warmer air on the leeward side of the mountain. The effect is called a Foehn wind in Europe and a Chinook wind in US and Canada. Air, Moisture and Mountains. The temperature of a mass of air determines how much moisture content it can hold. Warmer air can hold more moisture than cooler air, so air masses that are very cold hold little or no moisture content. Lapse Rate, Moisture, Clouds and Thunderstorms. The atmosphere is a three dimensional fluid. The air moves horizontally and vertically creating a mosaic of weather phenomena, and shaping the properties of climate. We will address the thermodynamics of moist air later. The state of a parcel of dry air is described by three properties: temperature (T, expressed in °K, where 273°K = 0°C), pressure (p, force per unit area, expressed in Newtons/m2) and density (ρ, the mass of a unit volume, in Kg/m3). As the air descends on the leeward side of the mountain the temperature increases at the DALR since it is no longer fully saturated. This is because the rate that the dew point changes as it descends is around 2°C/km which is less than the DALR of 5°C/km. The largest differences in behavior between moist and dry air thermodynamics is in the cooling process encountered under lifting of air parcels. This is because when air containing water vapor is lifted up it begins to cool at the dry adiabatic lapse rate. Rain Shadow Effect. this keeps plateaus and basins that lie between the pacific ranges and the rocky mountains hot and dry. Areas such as- Great Salt Lake Desert, Death Valley, Mojave Desert. HIghest temperature ever recorded- Death Vallet at 134. The environmental lapse rate is 10 °C/km - higher than the adiabatic lapse rate - and the parcel continues to rise throughout the entire column. At the tropopause the lapse rate changes and becomes 5 °C/km. The parcel then quickly becomes colder than the environment and stops its ascent.
The leeward side of the mountain is moist.