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Mountains and Rain Shadows

Different Climates in the Cascade Mountain Range

How different can climate conditions be on either side of a mountain? Let’s look at the data for two towns that are on either side of the Cascade Mountain Range. 

Packwood is a town on the west side of the Cascade Mountains in the state of Washington in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. At a similar elevation and latitude on the east side is Yakima, WA. The distance between Packwood and Yakima is about 55 miles.
A satellite image of Washington State, with tables of location data for Packwood and Yakima.

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Washington State is divided by the Cascade Range into two distinct regions. The western section borders the Pacific Ocean and is green and vegetated. The eastern section is brown and less vegetated. The town of Packwood is located in the green area to the west of the Cascade mountains. The city of Yakima is positioned at approximately the same latitude and elevation as Packwood but is located in the brown area to the east of the mountains. See the alt-format document in Handouts on PBS LearningMedia for a description of the location data.

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