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Why is the La Guajira desert there?


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Northern tip of Venezuela/Colombia is remarkably arid - not even semi-arid.  Has sand dunes, cacti, the whole nine yards.  There isn't an obvious topographic reason that it is so arid - there is some elevation to trigger convection off the trades, SSTs aren't super cool. If you go ~100mi in any landward direction, precipitaiton totals rise dramatically. Anyone know why it is a desert?

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Well, Lake Maracaibo is one of the rainiest places on Earth, with lightning around 50% of the year...there's probably some connection there (convergence, subsidence relationship?)

Sure, but <10" of annual precip? With no obvious rain shadow or cold SSTs?

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Northern tip of Venezuela/Colombia is remarkably arid - not even semi-arid. Has sand dunes, cacti, the whole nine yards. There isn't an obvious topographic reason that it is so arid - there is some elevation to trigger convection off the trades, SSTs aren't super cool. If you go ~100mi in any landward direction, precipitaiton totals rise dramatically. Anyone know why it is a desert?

The smart a** answer is of course lack of rain is why it is a desert.
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