How does mountain topography affect weather?

Answer 1

Mountains can have many effects on the weather. However, the main effect centers around forced lifting. Air flow must either go around or over a mountain. If it goes around, the flow is altered from it's mean state and the local patter of flow changes. This can lead to meteorological situations like cold air damming.

If the flow goes over the mountain, the resulting lifting causes the are to cool and eventually saturate once the dew point in reached. Further lifting will lead to condensation and latent heat release either triggering precipitation or enhancing pre-existing precipitation.

Once the flow crosses the mountain and heads back down, the air will warm. Since the lifting forced precipitation out of the lifted air and reduced the overall moisture content of the flow, the now sinking air will heat faster as it sinks than it would if there hadn't been a change in the overall moisture. This leads to downslope winds which has many other names depending on region.

There is an excellent review paper on orographic precipitation that you can read. It's will be easy to understand if you have a very basic understanding of weather processes. It's a little hard to find so you might have to go to a major library to find it.

Progress on the theory of orographic precipitation
Ronald B. Smith
Geological Society of America
Special Paper 398
2006

Answer 2

Mountains affect weather in many ways.In India the Himalayan mountain range prevent the cold winds from the north side(particularly from the Siberia)from reaching the Indian penisula durin winter.Further ,during the south west monsoon season(June to September) in India, it deflects the southerly winds towards west and is responsible for the copius raifall along the southern side of the mountains over a stretch of more than 1500 Kms.
Moreover mountains waves which are dangerous to aviation are also possible on the leeward side of the mountain if strong air currents are obstructed by the mountain.
If winds are forced to rise or descend along the slopes, katabatic winds at night and anabatic winds during day time are also possible.Thus mountains affect the weather in many ways depending upon the place where they are located.

Answer 3

Mountains collect and form clouds around them by slowing the flow of wind past them.