Agrometeorology: Soil recharge continues

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They explained: since Saturday last week, several waves of moist air masses arrived in the Carpathian Basin, another significant rainfall of 10-30 millimeters fell in many places, and thunderstorms also formed. Most of the rain occurred in the central part of the country, while only a few drops fell in the northwest. Thus, the lack of precipitation has further decreased, the total precipitation of the past 30 days in most parts of the country is between 40-80 millimeters, which is much more than the long-term average, and even the 90-day total already exceeds the usual value in some places.

The upper 60-80 centimeter layer of the soil was saturated in many places, even to a depth of 1-1.5 meters in the southwest and northeast, and in some places, inland water spots appeared

The water deficit compared to saturation in the Great Plain and the northern part of Transdanubia decreased to 20-50 millimeters in the upper one-meter layer, so the situation has improved a lot compared to the beginning of March – they wrote. In the middle of last week, there were serious night frosts, the temperature dropped to minus 3 and minus 8 degrees Celsius in many places. Milder air waves arrived from Friday, the frosts ceased by the end of the week and the daytime warming also intensified. The soil temperature measured at 5 centimeters fell to 4-6 degrees by the middle of last week, but is currently around 10 degrees again.

The spring development of autumn sowings has already started intensively due to the warm weather typical of the first half of March, and then the rains that arrived from the middle of the month

As a result of the favorable weather, the winter wheat fields that had overwintered less well are also developing spectacularly. Among the early stone fruits, apricots and almonds are blooming almost all over the country. Last week’s frosts hit the trees in full bloom in the southern and central areas, and without protection they could have caused serious damage to the crop, but in the northeast they only reached them in the bud burst phase.

According to the forecast, another 5-25 millimeters of rain is expected in several waves until the beginning of next week

The larger amount is likely in the southern areas, so the soil will continue to recharge, and a drier period will begin from Tuesday. The temperature will drop slightly by the beginning of next week, and maximums of only around 10 degrees are expected in the more permanently cloudy, rainy parts. As the clouds become less dense by mid-week, nighttime cooling will increase, but current estimates suggest that only frost-prone areas will experience ground frost, with daytime temperatures of 15-20 degrees Celsius expected by mid-next week. Longer-term, more uncertain forecasts suggest that a more serious cold wave could arrive in April.