Glimpse of Kvarner from Učka Mountain Massif, Vojak Peak, 1401m; Istra/Istria Peninsula top Summit; Primorsko-Goranska Županija, Rijeka, Hrvatska
27-March-2023
See notes.
More than the wide 360° view (except 30° from antennas and radars, which hide the Kamnik Alps in North Slovenia), the massif itself is very interesting (for me...) from a micro-climatological point of view.
In particular from a rainfall point of view, Učka represents an extreme example of self-production of clouds and precipitation.
No other isolated relief of the entire area that I follow comes close to what Učka produces only for itself!
Detached from the most important "precipitation basin" of central-northern Dinarids (Gorski Kotar, HR/Snežnika, SLO: up to 3000mm or 3000l/m2 per year), it rises on a less rainy area, going from 1100/1300mm per year downstream in 3 out of 4 directions and around 1700mm/year towards the North, in the highest section that connects it to Ćićarija, its peak reaches 2500mm per year, which shows how it "does everything by itself"!
The particular precipitation regime is clearly due to the orography of a isolated mountain, as well as to the geographical position where various currents meet and go up again from various directions, this means that the summit is a point/line of convergence (the summit is on a small north-south ridge) and as such it generates clouds and precipitations forming an orographic low pressure (causes updrafts that reduce gravitational pressure) just above it.
Wet and mild air ascends it from the south-eastern side (that in the shot), where it rises imperious (considerable prominence) directly from the sea of the Kvarner Gulf, moreover warmer and drier air, during the day, with solar overheating, climbs it from the Istrian side, the south-western one, in particular from the Čepić basin (in the previous photo), while colder currents can be added from the north
The air that rises up the slopes meets progressively colder masses and this leads to the condensation of the water vapor in clouds, while the continuous ascent of the currents gives the clouds a marked vertical development, especially between spring and summer with the formation of thunderstorms exclusively along the its slopes and on its top.
In these cases the altimetric thermal gradient is very marked and contributes to generating and reinforcing the phenomena.
Even the individual fronts are evidently emphasized by the ascent to which the currents that accompany them are forced by the marked orography of the massif in every direction.
Glimpse of Kvarner from Učka Mountain Massif, Vojak Peak, 1401m; Istra/Istria Peninsula top Summit; Primorsko-Goranska Županija, Rijeka, Hrvatska
27-March-2023
See notes.
More than the wide 360° view (except 30° from antennas and radars, which hide the Kamnik Alps in North Slovenia), the massif itself is very interesting (for me...) from a micro-climatological point of view.
In particular from a rainfall point of view, Učka represents an extreme example of self-production of clouds and precipitation.
No other isolated relief of the entire area that I follow comes close to what Učka produces only for itself!
Detached from the most important "precipitation basin" of central-northern Dinarids (Gorski Kotar, HR/Snežnika, SLO: up to 3000mm or 3000l/m2 per year), it rises on a less rainy area, going from 1100/1300mm per year downstream in 3 out of 4 directions and around 1700mm/year towards the North, in the highest section that connects it to Ćićarija, its peak reaches 2500mm per year, which shows how it "does everything by itself"!
The particular precipitation regime is clearly due to the orography of a isolated mountain, as well as to the geographical position where various currents meet and go up again from various directions, this means that the summit is a point/line of convergence (the summit is on a small north-south ridge) and as such it generates clouds and precipitations forming an orographic low pressure (causes updrafts that reduce gravitational pressure) just above it.
Wet and mild air ascends it from the south-eastern side (that in the shot), where it rises imperious (considerable prominence) directly from the sea of the Kvarner Gulf, moreover warmer and drier air, during the day, with solar overheating, climbs it from the Istrian side, the south-western one, in particular from the Čepić basin (in the previous photo), while colder currents can be added from the north
The air that rises up the slopes meets progressively colder masses and this leads to the condensation of the water vapor in clouds, while the continuous ascent of the currents gives the clouds a marked vertical development, especially between spring and summer with the formation of thunderstorms exclusively along the its slopes and on its top.
In these cases the altimetric thermal gradient is very marked and contributes to generating and reinforcing the phenomena.
Even the individual fronts are evidently emphasized by the ascent to which the currents that accompany them are forced by the marked orography of the massif in every direction.