Bura wind in Croatia by Zeljko Serdar

Let’s call it the good wind.

Bura comes from the northeast, catapulting over the Velebit mountain range out to the Adriatic sea. It’s a dry cool wind, which is why it can be freezing on a sunny cloudless day. If the sun is out and you’re freezing to death, that’s bura. It’s most common in winter but can happen at any time of the year. [Read: Visit Northern Velebit National Park]

This wind is also perfect and downright required for drying pršut (Dalmatia’s cured ham) as it ages in open houses across Dalmatia. As a wise Croatian woman told me, “Without a bura, there is no good pršut!”

The incredible flavor and saltiness of cheese from Pag Island is also attributed to the bura. As the wind kicks up, it blows the salt from the Adriatic Sea onto the island grass. The sheep graze on the salty grass and herbs, which makes their milk supremely tasty for cheese preparation.

In Dalmatia, the sky can get clogged with a haze that makes the islands barely visible. Bura comes in and wipes the sky clean. It is said that on some days after bura, one can see Italy from the top of Biokovo Mountain. Every once in a while, there is štrokav bura, or dirty bura, that happens during rainstorms.

Bura can reach speeds of 220 km (136 miles) per hour but has been clocked as high as 304 km (189 miles) per hour. We are talking hurricane force. Luckily homes are built of concrete instead of wood, which prevents them from blowing away like they would in the United States.

The strongest bura tends to happen in Senj, near Rijeka. Because of its position on the coast, the bura can blow in multiple directions. During the Eastern European Cold Wave in the winter of 2012, the bura threw fish out of the sea on the island of Pag.