Hungary: Dry winter paints a picture of things to come

The water-stressed weather of the past weeks is now threatening to turn into a drought period, the viability of the season’s winter crops will soon be in danger, reported the news channel InfoRádió recently.

Meteorologist Attila Kovács has told the news channel that all over Hungary, precipitation in the past weeks has not been enough to conserve moisture levels in the soil by far. Most regions saw no snowfall and very little rain. In the central regions of the country, many areas saw less than 1 millimeter of rainfall in the past thirty days (Hungary’s total average annual rainfall is between 500 and 750 mm).

According to Mr. Kovács, although winter crops are doing well for now, the extended drought period will cause problems further into the year, especially in the summer. As the hot and dry summer period drains the moisture levels of the soil, normally it is the cool and wet winter period during which moisture levels are replenished by winter snow and rains. The current dry spell might just make summer droughts much more severe throughout 2022, which will have grave effects on field crop cultivation.

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