Agrometeorology: the weather is dry

(Photo: Pixabay)

It was announced: the rainy Medárd period of the early summer did not develop this year, in many places there was no rain at all or only very little rain in June. The cold front that arrived on Sunday caused showers and thunderstorms in many places, but the rainfall was only small. The upper 60-centimeter layer of the soil, and in many places 80-100 centimeters in the Great Plain, is critically dry, the intensification of the drought only stalled with the weekend’s rainfall, but did not stop, currently the majority of the country is experiencing a moderate or severe agricultural drought. The rapid evaporation of the little precipitation and the drying of the soils were also aided by the often strong, stormy winds in many directions. The temperature dropped significantly in the first half of the week due to the cold front, and on Monday only 20-24 degrees Celsius could be measured throughout the country in the hottest hours. On Tuesday morning, the air cooled below 10 degrees in many places.

According to the analysis, autumn sowings will also suffer from the lack of precipitation in May and early June

The ears of corn have already entered the ripening phase, if it rained now, it would not help, and in fact, some fields have fallen due to the heavy showers over the weekend. The effects of the heat and drought of the past week will also be visible in the yield averages, but the current, moderately warm weather has a positive effect on these, they said. They added: corn and sunflowers love the summer heat, but the lack of precipitation also affects these crops very badly. The latest vegetation index for the second half of May, which shows the “greenness” of the surface, has stopped growing in a significant part of the country due to the lack of precipitation and the cool weather typical of May, and in fact, there is already a decrease in a large area in the Great Plain. The more developed vegetation that has been typical of the entire spring has “melted away”, and currently the development of vegetation is close to average.

According to the forecast, sunny, dry weather is expected until the end of the week, with slightly rising temperatures and moderate air movement

In the first days of next week, there will be more clouds and on Monday, mainly in Transdanubia, and on Tuesday, east of the Danube, rain, showers, thunderstorms are possible, but from the middle of next week, mostly dry weather is expected again. Thus, overall, the soil will continue to dry in the majority of the country, and an increase in drought can be expected.

MTI