Country profile - Distinguishing factors (Croatia)

Most of Croatia has a moderately warm, rainy climate with a mean monthly temperature in the coldest month above -3°C and below 18°C. Only the highest mountainous regions – >1 200 m above the sea level – have a snow forest climate with mean temperature in the coldest month below -3°C. The warmest month in inland has a mean temperature of below 22°C and in the coastal area above 22°C, and more than four months in the year have a mean monthly temperature of above 10°C. There are no particularly dry months, and the month with the least precipitation falls in the cold period of the year. An olive-tree climate predominates on the islands and in the coastal area of the central and southern Adriatic, the warm part of the year being a dry season with less than 40 mm of precipitation in the driest month, which is less than a third of that of the rainiest month of the cold part of the year. With an average 2,600 hours of sunshine in a year, the Adriatic coast is one of the sunniest in the Mediterranean, and the average sea temperature in the summer is between 25°C and 27°C [1].