Winds

Bura (or bora)

Bura (or bora) is a cold, gusty and strong wind blowing from the mainland mostly in the cold time of the year along the Eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea. The name of the wind is of all-Slavic origin meaning “whirlwind, evil wind”. During bura, moderate northern and north-eastern winds from the mainland are blowing in the inland, accelerating as they pass the mountain ranges. Bura lasts for several days, it is stronger in the night and, on our coastline, it can reach the intensity of a hurricane. At the sea, with its gusts the bura disperses the seawater into very small droplets and foam, creating a thin, foggy layer, the so-called smoking sea. Bura is created when the cold air from the hinterland descends along the steep slopes of the mountain ranges and through the narrow coastal creeks towards the sea. There are two types of the bura: anti-cyclonic and cyclonic. Important for the cyclonic bura is that, along with the high pressure in central Europe, a barometric depression is at the same time intensifying on the Adriatic, while in the anti-cyclonal bura there is no expressed depression but there is a line of an expressly higher pressure over our coast. For the bura to last for a longer time, the constant arrival of cold (polar) air in the hinterland with a constant heat resistance between the two areas is crucial. In popular belief, there are various legends on the bura, appearing in the effigy of a young girl. Petar Zoranić, in his novel Planine (Mountains), wrote down one version of the legend. According to this folk story, the bura was a young and very beautiful but also arrogant girl of noble origin. Because of her conceited and arrogant nature, she refused all her suiters one after the other. She praised and boasted of her beauty too much and on one occasion she said that she was more beautiful that the immortal fairies. Because of such haughtiness, God struck her with a lightning and threw her in hell. Whenever a woman sins the same sin, arrogance, she bitterly sighs thinking of her once happy life. Her sighs create the strong and cold bura wind.

According to another legend, the bura is a girl who agonizes and gets injured on the roofs and trees when someone curses the wind. As a revenge, with a spark from the chimney she can set on fire the house of the one who cursed the wind. Therefore, according to folk customs, bura could never be cursed.

Jugo

Jugo is a warm and wet wind creating high waves and appearing during cloudy and rainy weather. Even though it mostly blows in the cold parts of the year, it can also blow in the summer. In the southern Adriatic, it mostly occurs from the start of the fall and until the end of the winter, while in the Northern Adriatic it blows from the end of the winter until the start of the summer. In the winter, the jugo lasts up to nine days and can last even three weeks with interruptions. The cyclonal jugo (dark jugo) is created when the cyclone from the West nears the Adriatic or when the same develops in the Genoa Bay or in the Northern Adriatic. It mostly occurs with the development of secondary cyclones in the lee of the Alps. Therefore, the jugo starts firstly in the northern Adriatic, spreads towards the central and eastern Adriatic and likewise stops in the northern Adriatic first. The anti-cyclonal jugo (dry jugo) is created under the influence of a high atmospheric pressure over the eastern part of the Mediterranean and with a cyclone in the Northern parts of Europe. It mostly occurs in spring and autumn.

Maestral

Maestral is a constant wet summer wind of moderate strength blowing on the Croatian Adriatic coast from the north-western and western direction, following nice weather and easing the summer heat. It mostly occurs in the summer and blows only along the coast, rarely reaching further inland, and is a strict surface wind (up to 300 meters of height).

Tramuntana or tramontana

Tramuntana or tramontana is a cold, dry wind plunging from the mountains of the Northern Mediterranean and the Adriatic coast. On the Adriatic, it has all the features of bura, but is not gusty (it does not suddenly change the direction and speed) and never reaches its strength. Because of the position of the Adriatic coast and the features of the tramontana and bura, it is sometimes rather difficult to define which of the two winds is blowing. Tramontana comes mostly with fair weather.