This analysis covers the late stages of sugar beets (October harvest) and the early vegetative stages of soft wheat and winter barley (planted in October). According to HGCA crop updates, the maize harvest was a little delayed with 85 percent of maize area harvested by December 2, 2013, compared with 99 percent harvested at the same time last year. Compared with the last five-year average, the CropWatch environmental indices show warmer than average weather and close to normal PAR at the national scale. These observations are consistent with the warmer than usual weather in Europe recorded in the JRC/MARS bulletin. At the national level,biomass presents a 3 percent increase compared to the recent five-year average,which agrees with the increase of national maximum VCI value and the well above average national NDVI values in the NDVI profiles (e). According to the NDVIclusters ((b) and (c)), NDVI values are above average across the country with the exception of the south of Auvergne and the north of Languedoc-Roussillonregion, where NDVI values are below average from late November to mid-December.The Aquitaine and Midi-Pyrenees regions (dark green in figure (b)) present high NDVI values from October to November, but gradually decrease thereafter, after maize has been harvest. Generally good NDVI conditions are present in Picardieand Champagne-Ardenne region and the east and south of Bourgogne-Franche Comté(figures (b) and (c)), which agrees well with the positive biomass departure shown in dark green and blue in figure (d).