45 



snow, hail, or dew, and varies with the locality and season, 

 being usually greatest near coasts where moisture-laden winds 

 blow inland, and least where the prevailing winds blow in the 

 opposite direction. On parts of the Gulf coast the annual rain- 

 fall is about 70 inches, on the northwest coast it may be from 

 105 to 112 inches. In the Mojave desert, surrounded by moun- 

 tains that intercept the moisture, it is less than 2 inches a year. 



PRECIPITATION AT JoLIKT, ILLINOIS, FOR FOUR YEARS 

 ILLUSTRATING VARIATIONS THAT MAY OCCUR 



The heaviest rainfall in the world is found in the Khasi hills, 

 north of the Bay of Bengal, where the precipitation may reach 

 600 inches a year. More than 40 inches have fallen in a single 

 day there. The rainfall of the United States seems generally 

 to increase as one goes eastward. Over much of the Rocky 

 Mountain region it is from 10 to 20 inches, on the western 

 edge of the Great Plains it is from 20 to 30 inches, in the north- 

 central states it is from 30 to 40 inches, and the eastern states 



1 The average annual precipitation at this station for eighteen years is 34.58 

 inches. 



