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Mountains can affect the climate of nearby lands. Clouds approaching a mountain are forced to rise, and rising clouds can't hold so much water, so they drop their rain, so the windward side of a mountain range may be rainy and the leeward side may be a desert.

Much of airborne moisture falls as rain on the windward side of mountains. This often means that the land on the other side of the mountain (the leeward side) gets far less rain - an effect called a "rain shadow" - which often produces a desert.

The higher the mountain, the more pronounced the rain shadow effect is and the less likely rain will fall on the leeward side.

(The Windward is the side of a mountain that is facing into the direction that the wind is coming from.

The Leeward side is the wind protected side of a mountain.)

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