The Appalachian temperate rainforest is located in the southern Appalachian Mountains of the eastern U.S. About 351,500 square kilometers (135,000 square miles) of forest land is spread across eastern Kentucky, southwestern Virginia, western North Carolina, the northwestern portion of South Carolina, northern Georgia, northern Alabama, and eastern Tennessee. The annual precipitation is more than 60 inches (1,500 mm). The Southern Appalachian spruce–fir forest is a temperate rainforest located in the higher elevations in southwestern Virginia, western North Carolina and East Tennessee. Fir is dominant at higher elevation, spruce at middle elevation, and mixed forests at low elevation.