NATIVE PEOPLE'S OBSERVATION ON LOCAL WINDS ON THE CROATIAN COAST

Abstract

Local names of the winds from various directions such as sjeverac, oštro, levante and burg (widely known as bora) and their characteristics are mentioned here. The description of this article is based on neither the meteorological nor the climatological measurement, but on the summarization and induction of the local people's experiences, which have a close connection to their occupations—agriculture and fishery. The followings are the major results obtained :(1) The main signs of bores wind are : i) Mountain clouds called “brv”, which look like a form of foehn wall, are formed at the cols at first, then gradually covers all over the ridges of Dinar Alps forming kapa clouds. ii) In the case that the whole sky is covered by low clouds, the relatively high and bright clouds are to be seen in the northwest direction and the dark clouds in the south. (2) The bora wind blows with striking gustiness (na mahove) with a cycle of 3-4 minutes. The bora wind falls down on the coast as if “hard things were thrown on the ground”. The tops of the sea waves turn to sprays by the strong wind, causing a thick, hazy visibility over the sea. This phenomenon is called fumaria at Trieste. (3) Calm after the bora wind, called bonaca in this region, generally continues 2 or 3 days. Then the southerly wind, jugo, begins to blow. (4) There are two types of bora wind recognized widely by native fishermen because of their distinct characteristics. One is jasna bura (literally, bright bora) which means an anticyclonic bora, and the other is mra_??_na bura (dark bora), a cyclonic bora, respectively. The former prevails in the whole region of Adriatic Coast in the Croatian territory, but the latter limits itself to the northern part of the region. The border line may be located between Šibenik and Split.Some shelters from the bora wind are used among the fishermen, who have a good knowledge of the local peculiarities of land and sea, and also of the sequential phenomena by their long experiences.