April showers bring May Flowers.
When you read the word “Rainforest”, what do you think of first? I’m going to bet the Amazon, since it is the most famous tropical rainforest in the world. But forests that get lots of precipitation are located outside the tropical zone.
When I lived out west, we had two seasons; dry and wet. Even though spring and fall happened, they were not as strong defined as the drastic dry summer, and damp winter. To get an idea of how drastic these differences were, let me take you through a typical summer and winter.
Summer
Barely a cloud in the sky, the sun would beat down on you relentlessly. Trees would get so dry from the heat and lack of rain, that forest fires were common in summer months.
Winter
Everything in your life is damp. It is as if the dew from the morning never dried. Instead of cars rusting out if left too long in a yard, people would have to worry about mold and moss growing inside. And honestly I don’t think I saw the sun for months.
The Pacific Northwest is not the only temperate rainforest though. Looking at the map below I was shocked to find entire countries in a rainforest (like Japan and Ireland).
So if you are concerned about the amount of rain we have been getting in Pittsburgh, be thankful we are not in the rainforest; because we would be getting even more!
Photo retrieved from Wikipedia