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Arid Rain
Name: mike
Status: student
Age: 20s
Location: N/A
Country: N/A
Date: 2000-2001
Question:
why does in rain in the arid zone?
Replies:
Dear Mike-
"Arid" or "desert" type climates generally describe areas that receive
less than 25 cm of precipitation a year. There are very few places that go a
whole year without any precipitation...but some isolated desert locations
may go several years without rain. Precipitation is dependent on several
factors, including location relative to the general global circulation,
elevation, latitude, and proximity to certain geologic features, such as
mountains and oceans.
So, most arid regions will receive some precipitation each year, but much
less than moist regions.
Wendell Bechtold, Meteorologist
Forecaster, National Weather Service
Weather Forecast Office, St. Louis, MO.
Even desert areas receive some rain, although the moisture comes from
a
non-arid area. A good example is the little amount of rain that falls
in the western deserts of the United States; most of the moisture
comes
from the Pacific Ocean, but little is left after orographic lifting
causes most of it to fall in the mountains of eastern California.
David Cook
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Update: June 2012
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