Overall, the total April to July precipitation (RAIN) inWestern Europe was 6% below the recent thirteen-year average, with exceptionalpositive departures over Germany and Denmark (figure 2.5). Temperature (TEMP)shows a decrease of 0.3°C. The spatial distributions of TEMP show a positivedeparture in north and east Italy, northern France, and southeastern UnitedKingdom, especially in late May, early June, and early July. RADPAR displays adecrease of 0.5%. As a result of poor environmental conditions, biomass(BIOMSS) is below the five-year average in southern Germany, northeastern andwestern France, and Spain. In general, BIOMSS for the MPZ shows a decrease of2% compared to the five-year average.

The average VCIx value for the MPZ is 0.86; low values areseen for the south and east of Spain (in Aragon, Castilla y Léon, andExtremadura and Castilla-La Mancha), south-west France (Poitou-Charentes andMidi-Pyrénées), south-east Germany (Bayern and Baden-Württemberg), NortheasternAustria (Niederōsterreich) and eastern Hungary (Békés and Csongrád). Thespatial distributions of VHIn show the lowest value in southern Germany, northeasternFrance, northern Italy, and southern Spain, due to low precipitation, but tovarying extents. The fraction of cropped arable land reached 99.8% overthe monitoring period.

Figure 2.5. Western Europe MPZ: Agroclimaticand agronomic indicators, April-July 2014