Types of rain

Relief rain

Relief rain usually happens along coastal areas where a line of hills runs along to the coast. When wet onshore wind from the sea meets a mountain, hill or any other sort of barrier, it is forced to rise along the slope and cools. When the air temperature falls to its dew point, water vapor condenses to form clouds. When the clouds can no longer hold the water droplets, relief rain begins to fall on the windward slope of the mountain. On the leeward slope, air sinks, it is warmed and further dried by compression. Therefore, the leeward slope is known as rain shadow. Moist winds blow in from the sea and are forced to rise over the land. The air cools and the water vapour condenses, forming rain drops. Relief rain is also a very dense and cold mixture of precipitation. As well as frontal rain, the UK is also affected by relief or orographic rain.