ICSE Class 9 Geography Question 13 of 19

Humidity — Question 7

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Question

Question 2(c)

Give a geographical reason for each of the following:

(i) Condensation is the reverse process of evaporation.

(ii) Coasts receive more rainfall than the interior of the continents.

(iii) The windward sides of mountains receive more rainfall than the leeward sides.

Answer

(i) Condensation is the reverse process of evaporation as evaporation is the process by which water vapour enters the atmosphere on heating while condensation is the process by which water vapour is converted back to water droplets on cooling.

(ii) Coasts receive more rainfall than the interior of the continents because the humidity in the clouds is high when they are at the coast. When they reach the interior of the continents, they have already shed water in the form of rain, and so, they do not have much humidity left to cause rainfall.

(iii) The windward sides of mountains receive more rainfall than the leeward sides because the sudden ascent of warm moist air on the windward sides causes cooling of air, leading to condensation and precipitation.
On the contrary, on descending the leeward slope, a decrease in altitude increases both the pressure and the temperature, leading the air to get compressed and warm. Consequently, the relative humidity drops and there is evaporation and little or no precipitation in the rain shadow area.