What is the climate of a mountain range at the border of the polar front?

I am currently designing a world for a series of short stories and have started looking at what kind of weather patterns would be present in certain regions. For simplicity's sake, we can assume the planet is very earth-like.

I designed a mountain range that runs west to east. To the north of the range are icy and snow plains and in the south lies the rest of the continent. There is a small bay of ocean water to the west of the mountain range (roughly a third of the size of the Hudson Bay in North America). I would like runoff from the mountains to form a river which travels west to east at numerous points. The mountain range comes out to roughly 60 degrees north latitude, around the border of the Ferrel and Polar cells. I did some research online and used the following information to make an assumption:

1) The area around the polar front has high precipitation.

2) There is a noticeable temperature difference between the opposite sides of the polar front.

3) The polar front moves South during the Winter and North during the Summer.

4) The rain shadow effect.

The assumption: During the Winter, the polar air moves South and hits the mountains. The air rises and causes snow. The land to the South of the mountains see little rainfall as a result and the river dies down. During the Summer, the air from the body of the continent moves North and rise up the South side of the mountain causing rain and the snow in the mountains melt. Both contribute to the river, causing a flood plain further downstream. The land to the North of the mountains become drier. This progresses slowly during the other seasons of the year.

Is the information I am using correct? Is this assumption sound? If it isn't, then what would the climate around this mountain range actually be and could there be a location that has the type of climate I've described?

Thanks in advanced and I really appreciate the help!

EDIT: I've included a rough draft map of the continent. It is by no means complete and includes basic features I would like to include (I have done little to no research or forest or desert formation, but comments are welcome). As a reference of size, mountains 1 are at 60 degrees north latitude and desert 1 at 30 degrees north latitude. In region Alpha, I plan another mountain range running along the dotted line the triangle is on. In region Bravo, I would also like to place another forest (likely pine) south of mountains 1. Forests 1-4 are planned deciduous.

The map: http://imgur.com/icVxGAr

posted about 9 years ago

Leon7C‭

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