The Huanghuaihai region is in the North China Plain, where winter wheat - summer maize double cropping is the major cropping practice. The monitoring period of this report is from January to April, during which the winter wheat progressed from winter dormancy to the flowering stage. Harvest will be completed in mid-June. 

Agro-climatic indicators showed that precipitation increased by 46%, radiation decreased by 8% and temperature rose by 0.8℃compared to the 15YA. Altogether, it led to a 25% increase in BIOMSS compared to the 15YA. The CALF exceeded the 5YA by 7%. The VCIx value was 0.94. The NDVI-based crop growth profile shows that the growth of winter wheat was slightly lower than 5YA before February and then slowly recovered to reach the maximum conditions observed in the previous 5 years by the end of April. As shown by NDVI clusters and profiles, 14.9% of cropland over northern Anhui and eastern Henan presented positive NDVI departures. In Shandong province, 14.5% of cropland over Northern and southern Shandong were negative, indicating that crops in these areas were in slightly less favorable conditions. The maps of maximum VCI show a similar distribution as the spatial NDVI patterns. The potential biomass departure map shows that biomass in the most part of the region was higher than the average level. All in all, conditions for winter wheat in the Huanghuaihai region are favorable.

(a) Crop condition development graph based on NDVI      (b) Spatial NDVI patterns compared to 5YA (c) NDVI profiles

(d) Time series rainfall profile                                                       (e) Time series temperature profile

(f)Maximum VCI                                                                 (g)Potential biomass departure from 5YA