Word of the Week: Orography

Orography: The nature of a region with respect to its elevated terrain. (Glossary of Meteorology.) Also, the study of hills and mountains.

The orography of a land mass affects winds and rainfall. Orographic clouds are created by the forced lifting of air by mountains; those clouds can produce orographic precipitation:

The extent to which winter precipitation is orographically enhanced within the Sierra Nevada of California varies from storm to storm, and season to season, from occasions when precipitation rates at low and high altitudes are almost the same to instances when precipitation rates at middle elevations ( considered here) can be as much as 30 times more than at the base of the range. (University of California, 2004.)

Watch a video depiction of orographic precipitation. (The YouTube title is misspelled, but it's correct within the video.)

Comments

[Orange]

Oreography, of course, has to do with the words stamped into Oreo dough prior to baking.

Orogeny is the process of mountain creation by folding of the earth's crust. I'm thinking geologists know a lot about orogenous zones.

[Ari Herzog]

LOL at orogenous zones. I'm not sure about geologists knowing about them, but I'm sure the dinosaurs of the Triassic did. They tried many things to stay extinction.

[Yaroslave L.]

Words of the week are pretty hilarious! Do they really exist or are you guys making them up?

[Nancy Friedman]

Yaroslave: I'm looking around, and I see only one "guy" here at Fritinancy Central, and she is a gal. And no, "we" do not make up words for Word of the Week. ("We" do make up words for our clients who need corporate or product names, however.) All Words of the Week have been spotted at least once, and usually more frequently, in reliable online and offline sources.