I don't know an awful lot about meteorology, so please bear with me.
My wife (who has a Geography degree) told me that rain can be generated when moist air is pushed up the side of a mountain. This makes sense from a thermodynamic point of view, but I was wondering what scale we are talking about.
It so happens we live in a mountainous area, and I often see dark clouds over the other side of the mountains. The prevailing wind is always towards us, and when it rains, it looks really bad on the other side, but somewhat ordinary by the time it gets to where we live.
The lake on the far side of the mountain is at around 400 m, the mountain is a somewhat flat ridge peaking at 1100 m, and our side of the lake is at around 700 m.
Is most of the water dumped on the far side from us?