Bura (Bora) Wind
Bora or in Croatian Bura is a northern to north-eastern wind that blows along Adriatic Coast, whose name derives from the Greek mythological figure of Boreas – the North Wind. Bura blows in gusts and is most common during the winter. It blows hardest when a polar high-pressure area sits over the snow-covered mountains of the interior plateau behind the coastal mountain range and a calm low-pressure area lies further south over the warmer Adriatic. As the air grows even colder Bura increases.
What is the Bora and why choosing it for an example of use of the archive data?
The Bora is a well-known North East wind that blows on the North Adriatic coast between Trieste and the Montenegrin coast. It is a cold and strong wind with gusts that can overpass 150 km/h.
The Bora is indeed strong but also variable: significant wind speed differences can be observed along the coast as well as off shore on the Adriatic. These differences create the so-called jets (area with strong winds) and wakes (area with weaker winds). These jets and wakes are mainly due to the coastal topography that conducts the Bora in particular directions. This effect has been well studied and it is interesting to see how the meteoblue wind data can simulate it.
Why using simulation data to study the Bora?
The spatial variability of the Bora requires a high resolution data set. Weather stations cannot offer such a high resolution network. The two remaining possibilities are remote sensing methods (radar, satellites) and simulation from weather models. Radars require special equipments for the study area and therefore radar derived wind data cannot be obtained easily for any region and any period of time. Because wind simulations come from weather models that are operating globally over the world and that store data for a long period of time, they are more easily accessible.
