The western slope of the cascade mountains receives the heaviest amounts of rainfall and snowfall, this is the: a. leeward slope b. windward slope c. chinook slope d. semiarid slope

The answer is; B

This western part of the slope faces the Pacific ocean. Therefore sea breeze from the ocean in the daytime, which is warm and moist, is forced up the mountain where it cool as it ascends and the moisture condenses into precipitation. This is why this side is the windward. The dry air then descend into the leeward side (the eastern region of the mountain). This part of the mountain is drier than the western region.

The correct answer is - B. windward slope.

The western side of the Cascade Mountains are open towards the Pacific Ocean. The air masses that are coming from the Pacific are in general stopped at the western slopes of this mountain range. This basically means that when there's warm and wet air masses coming from the Pacific, the western side of the mountains get pretty much all of the rainfall or snowfall, and that is because the mountains themselves are a natural blockade for the air masses, so they accumulate and empty themselves.

The side that is getting the rainfall and snowfall, in this case the west side, is the windward side of the mountains. The other side of the mountains that receives dry air masses is the leeward side.