Crkvice

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Crkvice (42.34N 18.38E) on Orjen in Montenegro is the wettest place in Europe. The average annual precipitation for the period 1931-1960 was 4927 mm/m²y and for 1961-1990 4631 mm/m². The highest amounts per year surpass 7000 mm/m² with an all time historic high at 8036 mm/m²y (1937).

[edit] Climate

Meteorological station on Orjen

Crkvice is within the Mediterranean subtropical belt. While summers are hot and sunny, autumn, winter and spring are rainy seasons. A peculiarity of the littoral Dinarids is the precipitation regime as Orjen receives Europe's' most heavy precipitation. Like the monsoon rain it is seasonally distributed, thus November thunderstorms sometimes pour 2000 l of water in several days, while August is frequently completely dry leading to forest fires.

With a maximum discharge of 350 m³/s water one of the biggest karst springs, the Sopot spring, is a remarkable indicator of this seasonality. Most of the time it is inactive but after heavy rain a remarkable waterfall appears 20 m above the Bay of Kotor.

Station	Height [m]	Type	Character	Precipitation [mm]	Snow
Zubacki kabao	1894	Dfsc	perhumid Mediterranean snowclimate	ca. 6250	ap. 140 days
Crkvice	940	Cfsb	(fs= without summerdryness), perhumid Mediterranean mountain climate	4926	70 days
Risan	0	Cs’’a	(s’’= double winter rain season), perhumid Mediterranean coast climate	3500	2 days

* classification scheme after Köppen

Two wind systems are noteworthy for their ecological significance: Bora and Sirocco. Strong cold downslope winds of Bora type appear in winter and are most severe in the Bay of Risan. Gusts reach 250 km/h and can lead to a significant fall of temperatures in several hours with freezing events problematic for most of the Mediterranean cultures. Bora weather situations are frequent and sailors keep an eye on the mountains as cap clouds indicate an eminent Bora event. Sirocco is a warm humid rain and is important as it brings heavy rain. It appears throughout the year but is usually centered in autumn and spring.

Station	Period	Height [m]	I	II	III	IV	V	VI	VII	VIII	IX	X	XI	XII	I-XII [mm/m²a]
Herceg Novi	1961-1984	40	230	221	183	135	130	73	28	45	160	181	326	262	1974
Risan	1961-1984	40	405	342	340	235	153	101	66	123	188	295	423	434	3105
Grahovo	1961-1984	710	351	324	305	251	142	94	55	103	202	416	508	473	3224
Podvrsnik	1961-1984	630	407	398	367	305	151	101	77	132	238	465	593	586	3820
Vrbanje	1961-1984	1010	472	390	388	321	181	104	70	122	224	369	565	536	3742
Knezlaz	1961-1984	620	547	472	473	373	207	120	72	136	268	400	629	661	4358
Crkvice	1961-1984	940	610	499	503	398	198	135	82	155	295	502	714	683	4774
Ivan. Korita	1960-1984	1350	434	460	742	472	128	198	74	46	94	300	694	972	4614
Goli vrh	1893-1913	1311	271	286	307	226	188	148	75	70	215	473	415	327	3129
Jankov vrh	1890-1909	1017	424	386	389	346	212	124	55	58	202	484	579	501	3750
Cetinje	1961-1984	655	434	357	367	288	164	92	72	118	209	306	489	498	3394
Grab-Zubci	1934-1960	677	333	325	257	195	183	83	59	86	173	360	447	485	2985
Trebinje	1931-1960	276	193	190	160	102	119	70	43	76	110	239	247	249	1762
Dubrovnik	1931-1960	49	147	113	102	92	79	60	24	38	97	156	213	186	1307