Small Altocumulus Lenticularis Clouds high Above the Velebit Dinaric Chain Break a Clear Sky in a Dry and Transparent Atmosphere; Stara Baška, Otok Krk Island, Primorsko-Goranska Županja, Hrvatska
27-December-2024
The Bora/Bura wind is katabatic, but generally does not have pronounced "Foehnizing" characteristics, as instead the winds falling from the Alps (Foehn) or from the Rocky Mountains (Chinook).
This is also evident from the absence of the opposite phenomenon above and behind the mountain range, namely the "stau", which is a necessary condition for the Foehn.
In any case, when the Bora blows for a long time and intensely, in clearly anticyclonic conditions, the air tends to dry out along the entire column and from the low "stau" clouds (which is a necessary condition for the Foehn, but not sufficient), that usually envelop the peaks of the Maritime Dinaric Alps with this wind, we move to sporadic formations of lenticular clouds that exploit the little humidity left by condensing at high altitudes above the highest peaks where there is an upwelling of currents that condense when they meet the colder ones at the top.
They form layer upon layer in the same position which is necessarily orographic and remain stationary until they dissolve, which occurs with the cessation or change of wind.
Here the humidity is very low and the lenticular cloud has only 2 or 3 layers, in precarious equilibrium.
The dry air of the anticyclonic bora (and progressively milder) fits well with the "false desert" environment of Stara Baška.
I say "false" because the precipitations are actually quite high (1100-1200mm or l/m2 per year) and well distributed throughout the year (therefore not responding to the classic Mediterranean canons with precipitations concentrated in the cold semester and almost nothing in the hot one), as in the other areas of the North-Eastern Adriatic, with relatively cold winters (some very cold, now memories of the last century) and hot summers, very hot in the last 30 years, but with the presence of frequent thunderstorms, which instead are no longer present in the south in midsummer.
The desert/lunar type environment is due to the poor, rocky soil, composed in particular of limestone and silica, as well as the frequent and intense presence of the bora/bura wind that does not allow the accumulation of humus on these exposed lands and therefore not by drought conditions, which are only casual and temporary at this latitude and geo-orographic position.
The road that leads to the hamlet is definitely spectacular.
Small Altocumulus Lenticularis Clouds high Above the Velebit Dinaric Chain Break a Clear Sky in a Dry and Transparent Atmosphere; Stara Baška, Otok Krk Island, Primorsko-Goranska Županja, Hrvatska
27-December-2024
The Bora/Bura wind is katabatic, but generally does not have pronounced "Foehnizing" characteristics, as instead the winds falling from the Alps (Foehn) or from the Rocky Mountains (Chinook).
This is also evident from the absence of the opposite phenomenon above and behind the mountain range, namely the "stau", which is a necessary condition for the Foehn.
In any case, when the Bora blows for a long time and intensely, in clearly anticyclonic conditions, the air tends to dry out along the entire column and from the low "stau" clouds (which is a necessary condition for the Foehn, but not sufficient), that usually envelop the peaks of the Maritime Dinaric Alps with this wind, we move to sporadic formations of lenticular clouds that exploit the little humidity left by condensing at high altitudes above the highest peaks where there is an upwelling of currents that condense when they meet the colder ones at the top.
They form layer upon layer in the same position which is necessarily orographic and remain stationary until they dissolve, which occurs with the cessation or change of wind.
Here the humidity is very low and the lenticular cloud has only 2 or 3 layers, in precarious equilibrium.
The dry air of the anticyclonic bora (and progressively milder) fits well with the "false desert" environment of Stara Baška.
I say "false" because the precipitations are actually quite high (1100-1200mm or l/m2 per year) and well distributed throughout the year (therefore not responding to the classic Mediterranean canons with precipitations concentrated in the cold semester and almost nothing in the hot one), as in the other areas of the North-Eastern Adriatic, with relatively cold winters (some very cold, now memories of the last century) and hot summers, very hot in the last 30 years, but with the presence of frequent thunderstorms, which instead are no longer present in the south in midsummer.
The desert/lunar type environment is due to the poor, rocky soil, composed in particular of limestone and silica, as well as the frequent and intense presence of the bora/bura wind that does not allow the accumulation of humus on these exposed lands and therefore not by drought conditions, which are only casual and temporary at this latitude and geo-orographic position.
The road that leads to the hamlet is definitely spectacular.