Why We Find Rainforests in Unexpected Places

Many of us are familiar with rainforests; lush and exotic environments that serve as the pinnacle of life on Earth. For the most part we assume these only occur throughout the tropics, but as it turns out certain areas in the temperate latitudes can receive just as much rainfall, creating a number of rainforests in unexpected places.

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Sources / Further Reading

[finlayhumberstone]

As someone from Scotland I never thought I'd find anyone actively looking for more rain

[lGREENFOXl]

The reason for the pixelated Caspian Sea is simple:
In earth system science, precipitation maps are usually gathered from the output of numerical climate models (mostly atmospheric models but sometimes also coupled atmosphere-ocean-cryosphere models). These models deploy grids on which the calculation of the governing equations is performed. Missing data can then lead to these pixelated artefacts!
Another reason is the interpolation of precipitation data onto a regular grid. Again, missing data can then lead to some artefacts.
I hope this helps!

[redsiberian]

Iran’s geography always finds a way to amaze me.

[beback_]

Being from Mazandaran, Iran I confuse a lot of people talking about how I used to hike in the rainforest as a child.

[Team.Melli.Report]

I actually travelled to Northern Iran. It was amazing to go from dry mountainous terrain to dense lush rainforests.

[majestichotwings]

fun little note to point out, the Valdivian and Magellanic forests sit just below the Atacama desert, the dryest desert on earth. crazy just how much of an effect the wind direction can have on an environment

[michael]

The rainforests of Tasmania and Victoria are home to the tallest species of flowering plant (Eucalyptus Regnans) which rival the height of the redwoods of North America.

[Jarekthegamingdragon]

Portland, OR resident here. It's not the rocky mountains that causes such a harsh rain shadow, it's the cascade mountain range which is completely separate. Once you get over the cascade mountains it's all suddenly desert in eastern Oregon/Washington.
While the temp does drop lower here than say in tropical rainforests, the temp rarely goes below freezing and also rarely gets hot unless you're at high elevations. Moderate is the correct definition, hence temperate rainforest.

[audenatticus]

As a Costa Rican, I find it incredible how much we take for granted to be able to hike every weekend in so many different and beautiful rainforests at such a relatively short distance. Seeing in this video how rare this is makes me want to protect them even more

[eliasjakob]

Whats cool about Chile is, that there are regions where it hasn't rained in decades in the Atacama desert while the Southern part of the Country recieves more rain than any other place. It has the dryest and the rainiest place outside of Antarctica.

[ilyaIvanov_personal]

The place you forgot about are Azores and Madeira islands. There are even Fern Trees that grow there.

[alexsmart]

I grew up in the West Highlands of Scotland and even in the rest of Scotland no one knows that we have rainforest! It’s truly beautiful and rich in plant life but sadly lacking in wildlife. It’s so sad that so many artificial timber forests dominate the landscape

[alexv]

I think the Japanese temperate rainforests deserve a mention too, they're quite beautiful and distinct from every other temperate rainforest on Earth

[captainwilliam]

I love that the one in Iran is in the thumbnail - I've looked at that place a lot on google maps, but there haven't really been videos on that. I would call it a near-perfect climate because it's not hot like the tropical rainforest, but also doesn't have the cold weather of the temperate rainforests of chile and the pacific northwest due to it's mid-range latitude.

[velianlodestone]

Iceland really is surprisingly the biggest example of human terraforming we have managed, any picture I have ever seen of iceland was without forest and trees, just barren moslands (Beautiful, no question) - but to learn that it was once a forest country and we barred the entirety of iceland was mindblowing.

[kunaldhawan]

Hey what about the rainforest on the eastern coast of russia? On the Kamchatka peninsula and the Shantar islands?

[emmaaa]

what a great way to start my day, no sleep and atlas pro

[TheKirillfish]

Thank you for mentioning Colchic forest. It rarely drops below zero there, and it has been this way throughout the last ice age. That’s why it became home for many endemic broadleaf evergreen trees and shrubs, such as boxwood and yew. Technically, it is sub-tropical rainforest, very unusual for its latitude.

[dantheman]

It's hard to imagine that Antarctica was ever a heavily forested landmass.

[pridefulobserver]

As a chilean, I confirm that nothofagus are everywhere here (south central to austral Chile), I had not noticed how unique our flora is until I journed to georgia and saw the flora near atlanta and fort bening and thinking how "strange" and "alien" the forests looked like