by Filip Tkaczyk
The wet, cool and moderate Pacific Northwest weather is apowerful force in shaping the ecology of the land. Understanding its patterns and how theychange throughout the seasons is a vital skill to anyone who is serious aboutlearning to enjoy the outdoors and especially for those interested in wildernesssurvival. The weather patterns present aunique assortment of challenges and blessings on the lands of the PacificNorthwest. It affects all aspects of thelives of the people who live in this region, and also strongly influences eacharea of curriculum at Alderleaf Wilderness College.
Lay of the Land
To understand the Pacific Northwest weather, you must firstunderstand its geography. Large mountainranges cross this land in several places, the largest being the Cascade Rangewhich stretches from northern California, through Oregon and Washington, andreaching into southern British Columbia. This range of mountains acts both as a rain trap and a rainbarrier. On the western slopes of theCascades, rainfall is high from 40 to over 80 inches per year. Meanwhile, on the eastern slopes it is muchlower and decreases as you travel further east and lower in elevation, fromabout 30 to less than 20 inches. Therelatively dry, semi-arid region east of this mountain range is called theColumbia plateau. This region can seeless than 15 inches of rain annually! This dramatic climatic impact of the mountains is known as the
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