The End of a Short Great Show; Trnovski Gozd, Slovenian Dinarides
18-February-2025
As mentioned, this area, where currents converge from opposite parts of Europe (but even, also directly, from Asia, Africa, North America, Greenland and Arctic) with high rainfall (here up to 2600mm/year) due to its proximity to the Adriatic Sea, was among the snowiest and coldest in continental Europe until the end of the 20th century.
Until the mid-1980s, in March, there was an average of 1 to 3 meters of snow at this altitude (generally above 1200m a.s.l.) on the northern Dinarides, especially on the internal slopes with respect to the Adriatic, namely those belonging to the Danube-Black Sea water catchment, given that the coastal Dinaric main range is also the main and very decentralized watershed between the Mediterranean and the Black Sea.
As many as 4 climatic zones overlap in a few kilometers from the Adriatic catchment to the Danube hinterland, which here starts 25 linear km E/NE of Trieste, that reduces to 6-10km linear along the northern coast of continental Croatia.
All this favored abundant snowfall, while the absence of the Alpine shield, whose mountain range in this area is decreasing in thickness and altitude, allowed long and icy outflows of Russian-Siberian origin currents, through the local wind called Bora/Burja/Bura, with temperatures well below zero for many consecutive days even along the coasts and snowstorms when the Mediterranean responded with the overthrust of humid and less cold masses coming from it.
Hoar frosting and hard riming phenomena were common from November to early April, with accumulations of ice crystals on the windward slopes and on the peaks, which could reach a thickness of several meters, since the Bora wind could blow continuously even for 3 consecutive weeks with averages close to 100kmph, bringing low clouds with ice crystals, rising from the soaked internal plains, every minute of every hour of every day of those phases of the weather pattern, frequent phases.
Now the weather pattern has changed markedly over Europe and this is the main cause of the mild winters and unbearable summers, also over central, western and Balkan Europe, in addition to the Mediterranean: from the Russian HP that dominated the European winters we have moved on to the continuous rise of the African HP with evidently opposite effects, and this in all seasons.
All this is now just a distant memory of a child who loved where he lived and is still fascinated by the climatic-botanical variety of this area that includes climates and essences that can be found from Sicily to Scandinavia, but he is certainly sorry that what he grew up with is no longer there, or remains only in small part, a small-great show, increasingly brief.
The End of a Short Great Show; Trnovski Gozd, Slovenian Dinarides
18-February-2025
As mentioned, this area, where currents converge from opposite parts of Europe (but even, also directly, from Asia, Africa, North America, Greenland and Arctic) with high rainfall (here up to 2600mm/year) due to its proximity to the Adriatic Sea, was among the snowiest and coldest in continental Europe until the end of the 20th century.
Until the mid-1980s, in March, there was an average of 1 to 3 meters of snow at this altitude (generally above 1200m a.s.l.) on the northern Dinarides, especially on the internal slopes with respect to the Adriatic, namely those belonging to the Danube-Black Sea water catchment, given that the coastal Dinaric main range is also the main and very decentralized watershed between the Mediterranean and the Black Sea.
As many as 4 climatic zones overlap in a few kilometers from the Adriatic catchment to the Danube hinterland, which here starts 25 linear km E/NE of Trieste, that reduces to 6-10km linear along the northern coast of continental Croatia.
All this favored abundant snowfall, while the absence of the Alpine shield, whose mountain range in this area is decreasing in thickness and altitude, allowed long and icy outflows of Russian-Siberian origin currents, through the local wind called Bora/Burja/Bura, with temperatures well below zero for many consecutive days even along the coasts and snowstorms when the Mediterranean responded with the overthrust of humid and less cold masses coming from it.
Hoar frosting and hard riming phenomena were common from November to early April, with accumulations of ice crystals on the windward slopes and on the peaks, which could reach a thickness of several meters, since the Bora wind could blow continuously even for 3 consecutive weeks with averages close to 100kmph, bringing low clouds with ice crystals, rising from the soaked internal plains, every minute of every hour of every day of those phases of the weather pattern, frequent phases.
Now the weather pattern has changed markedly over Europe and this is the main cause of the mild winters and unbearable summers, also over central, western and Balkan Europe, in addition to the Mediterranean: from the Russian HP that dominated the European winters we have moved on to the continuous rise of the African HP with evidently opposite effects, and this in all seasons.
All this is now just a distant memory of a child who loved where he lived and is still fascinated by the climatic-botanical variety of this area that includes climates and essences that can be found from Sicily to Scandinavia, but he is certainly sorry that what he grew up with is no longer there, or remains only in small part, a small-great show, increasingly brief.