Ukraine. Winter grains remained dormant

On December 1-13, Ukraine was exposed to both autumn and winter weather patterns: fog, rain, sleet, snowfall, snow cover formation and melting, reports UkrAgroConsult.

As of December 10, most of the country was free of snow or its height did not exceed 1-5 cm. Only occasional areas were covered with 6-18 cm of snow. Late in the week, snow cover in the southern and western regions equals 2-4 cm owing to precipitation. It has increased to 15 to 37 cm in the rest of the country.

In most regions, its average rates were 121 to 193% of normal (17 to 33 mm). Donetsk, Zaporizhia and Odesa regions received at most 38-67% of normal precipitation amounts (5-14 mm).

The average air temperature in most regions turned out to be close to normal or 1-20С below normal. On warm days, air temperature peaked at +2-70С, even at +8-110С in Kherson, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Volyn, Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk regions. It bottomed out at 15-200С below zero in most of the country and at 8-130С below zero in Volyn, Rivne, Zhytomyr, Vinnytsia, Poltava, Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhia and Kherson regions.

No adverse meteorological events for winter crops were observed this past week. Crop plants remained dormant. The lowest soil temperature at the depth of winter crops’ tillering node is now at -6-110С, even -1-50С in Zaporizhia, Mykolaiv, Cherkasy, Vinnytsia, Ivano-Frankivsk and Chernivtsi regions.

December’s weather has not influenced the condition of winter grains, which are now rated by experts as good and fair, reports UkrAgroConsult.