Agrometeorology: Drought continues to worsen

(Photo: Pixabay)

They wrote: an extraordinary drought is raging in the country, in the past 30 days in the central part of the country and in the southeastern part of Transdanubia there has been only 1-4 millimeters of precipitation, and in some places nothing has fallen at all, only in the Alpine foothills and in spots in the eastern part of the country an amount exceeding 20 millimeters has been measured. This is far less than the usual amount at this time of year, the deficit is typically between 40 and 70 millimeters, in the central and southeastern parts of the Great Plain it has fallen 100-120 millimeters less than usual since the end of March.

The top one-meter layer of soil is critically dry in most parts of the country

The only exception is the northwestern part of the country, where the moisture content near the surface does not even reach 20 percent of the water content usable by plants, and in the middle and deeper soil layers it remains below 30 percent. The top one-meter layer is 100-140 millimeters short of saturation. The temperature at the end of last week and in the first days of the week was 2-4 degrees Celsius above the long-term average.

The autumn sowings suffered from the lack of precipitation in May and June

They entered the ripening phase earlier than usual, the autumn barley harvest is already in full swing, and the wheat is also ripening. Precipitation would not help these plants, it would only cause further damage, they noted. Corn, sunflowers and soybeans are suffering greatly from the lack of precipitation, and “fluttering-leaf” corn stands are increasingly being seen, indicating that precipitation is urgently needed. The latest vegetation index value for the first half of June, which indicates the “greenness” of the surface, has continued to decrease in most parts of the country, and the decrease is not only typical of regions covered with a higher proportion of forests. According to the analysis, the size of areas that are less green than usual at this time of year has increased significantly in the Great Plain, and the negative anomaly has already appeared in the Lesser Plain, which shows the impact of the drought.

According to the forecast, showers and thunderstorms will move across the country from the northwest to the east from Thursday evening, and thunderstorms may still occur in the east on Friday evening

From Saturday, dry weather will return, with precipitation only possible again in the second half of next week, so overall the soils will continue to dry out and the drought will intensify. Temperatures will drop by 6-8 degrees on Saturday, but maximums above 30 degrees are expected again on Sunday, and the heat will return in the middle of next week with peak values ​​around 35 degrees or above.

MTI