Agrometeorology: the drought is getting worse

The summer crops would have needed a lot of rainfall in the past week, a large part of Hungary is experiencing a high degree of increasing drought. Maize and sunflower are drying more and more, while the ripening process is slowly starting, HungaroMet Nonprofit Zrt. wrote in its agrometeorological analysis on Thursday.

(Photo: Pixabay)

According to the information, the last week was mostly dry weather, only in the western regions of Transdanubia, in a small area, more than five millimeters of rain fell on Sunday. The amount of precipitation in July in the central and eastern areas of the Transdanubia and in the western regions of the Great Plain is five in many places, but in some places it does not even reach a millimeter – attention was drawn. Heavy showers and downpours occurred on the western, southwestern and north-northeastern borders and in several parts of the Great Plain, so 30-80 millimeters of precipitation fell in these places in the past month, but the amount of precipitation in July is still below the long-term average almost throughout the country. In a significant area, the deficit reaches 30-70 millimeters – they pointed out. The upper half-meter layer of the soil only contains a sufficient amount of moisture in spots, however, there are still moisture reserves at the half-meter level, and especially in the region deeper than one meter. The temperature rose day by day in the second half of last week, but the cold front on Sunday cooled the air a little, they wrote.

The vegetation, including the planted plants, are more than three weeks ahead in development than usual

The sunflowers have bloomed, the corn is drying more and more, the ripening process has begun. However, due to the lack of rainfall, irrigation is necessary for ideal development. The effect of drought and heat will also be reflected in crop averages, they indicated. They added: since last week was also characterized by dryness, the duration of leaf wetness exceeded ten hours in spots only last Thursday in the northeast and Sunday in the west. The length of humid periods was also low, so the development of fungal diseases was not supported by this dry weather. Warm weather can be expected in the continuation, on Friday mainly in Transdanubia, on Saturday there may be a higher chance of precipitation in the north-eastern part of the country, and from Sunday dry weather is likely again, at most on Monday a shower or thunderstorm may occur. According to the forecast, the soil will continue to dry in most of Hungary, and the drought is expected to worsen.

MTI