Crops in the United Kingdom showed mostly favorable conditions during the period from April to July 2016. During this period, most of the winter wheat, oats, and all the winter barley and winter rapeseed have been harvested, while spring barley is in the vegetative stage. Compared to average, the CropWatch agroclimatic indicators show that rainfall was in excess (RAIN, +16 percent) with average temperature (TEMP, +0.1°C) and well below average radiation (RADPAR, -6 percent). BIOMSS is expected to increase by 10% compared to the five-year average.

The national average of the VCIx (0.89) was above average, and the cropped arable land fraction remained unchanged compared to its five-year average. According to the crop condition map based on NDVI, close to 27.3% of the country recorded lower than average NDVI from May to July. Although overall NDVI values were close to the five-year average during the period, values for 72.7% of the region were above, with low NDVI values limited to 3.8% of agricultural areas, mostly in north Yorkshire and Humberside.

                   (a) Crop condition development graph based on NDVI

                        (b) Maximum VCI

                    (c) Spatial NDVI patterns compared to 5YA 

                           (d) NDVI profiles