Agrometeorology: plants are suffering from drought, the heat is only slowly easing

(Photo: Pixabay)

They wrote that in the week behind us, the weather was getting hotter and mostly dry. Showers and thunderstorms occurred in Transdanubia, and in some places between the Danube and Tisza and along the eastern border, in the northern regions of the former part of the country, 5-20 millimeters were measured as a whole in several places, while typically less than 10 millimeters fell elsewhere. At the same time, a significant part of the Tiszántúl and the region of the Northern Central Mountains remained completely dry.

Compared to the long-term average, 20-60 millimeters less precipitation fell

The upper soil layer in the central regions of the country, the upper one-meter layer of the soil is critically dry in the majority of the country, severe or severe drought is experienced in the majority of the country, with the exception of the western regions of Transdanubia and the northeastern part of the country.

Vegetation is more than two weeks ahead of normal in its development, to which even the drought due to forced ripening adds to the field crops

An increasing proportion of sunflower and corn stocks entered the plant drying phase. According to the analysis, the situation is better than the extreme drought of 2022, but the stocks are far from ideal. The value of the latest vegetation index for the end of July, showing the “greenness” of the surface, is still high according to the season, but it is decreasing. With the exception of forests, the natural vegetation is rapidly losing its green mass, and field crops have also begun to dry up. Natural drying was further accelerated by the largely dry weather.

MTI