Very mild winter conditions continue
The review period for this issue of the Bulletin (1 January to 10 February) was, again, warmer than usual throughout Europe.
In large parts of France and many regions surrounding the North Sea, the Baltic Sea and in eastern Europe it was the warmest 1 January to 10 February period on our records (since 1979).
As a consequence of the very mild weather conditions, the frost tolerance in winter cereals – built-up to protect the crops
in case of a cold-air intrusion – remains considerably weaker than usual in Germany, Poland, the Baltic countries, southern
Scandinavia, the Balkan region, south-western Russia, Ukraine and the British Isles. In several of these regions, the level
of winter hardening is now even lower than reported in the January issue of the Bulletin.
In Mediterranean regions and the northern half of the Iberian peninsula, the warmer-than-usual conditions are accompanied
by a marked deficit in precipitation. In Romania, the drought conditions reported in the January issue of the Bulletin were
alleviated by some rain in late January; however, this was insufficient to offset the cumulative deficit (as did occur in
southern Ukraine).
Likewise, in southern Italy and Greece, the precipitation forecast for the coming week will not be sufficient to counterbalance
the winter deficit. In most of the regions affected, this will not have a direct impact on crops, but above-average rainfall will be
needed at the end of winter and in early spring, to sustain optimal regrowth of winter cereals. However, in parts of the Maghreb
region (e.g. central Morocco, western Algeria) the persistent rain deficit is starting to impact biomass accumulation of wheat.
BUSSAY Attila;
CEGLAR Andrej;
CERRANI Iacopo;
MANFRON Giacinto;
PANARELLO Lorenzo;
SEGUINI Lorenzo;
TORETI Andrea;
VAN DEN BERG Maurits;
BIAVETTI Irene;
VAN DEN BERG Maurits;
2020-09-09
Publications Office of the European Union
JRC120736
2443-8278 (online),
2443-826X (print),
OP KJ-AW-20-002-EN-N (online),
OP KJ-AW-20-002-EN-C (print),
https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC120736,
