Weather map.

[Gamerprinter]

Threadjack -- regarding rain shadows. The weirdest climate I'd ever witnessed was on vacation on Kuau'i, Hawai'i a couple years back. The island is only 45 miles across (roughly) north to south and east to west. The dormant volcanoes at its center are about a mile high.

The north side of Kuau'i is lush tropical rainforest/jungle, gorgeous. The east side has palm and monkeytree groves, but is largely grassy. The south side is rather dry and as you travel west along the shore it turns into something out of Australian outback or the Arizona desert. The west side is barren eroded volcanic material with some stream fed palm forested valleys. Oh, and on top center near the volcano caps is both the wettest place on Earth (450 to 700 inches of rain per year), and the highest swamp on Earth, called the Alakai Swamp, really its a dwarf tropical rainforest with tropical trees only 10 to 20 feet high, drenched in water everywhere (planked walkways allow human movement), cold and misty all the time (50 degrees F), almost never sees sunlight - maybe 1 or 2 hours / day.

Extreme biospheres all within one tiny island.

Sorry for the Threadjack - just had to say that!

GP