This monitoring period covers the dormant winter season and the spring green-up of winter cereals in Central Europe and Western Russia. In general, the RADPAR was lower than average (-9%), with higher TEMP (+1.8℃), and rainfall (+5%). Conditions were generally favorable for the winter crops in most areas of the MPZ. Crops of this region are mainly rainfed, hence the agro-meteorological conditions play a decisive role in crop growth.

According to the spatial distribution map of precipitation distance level clustering, the precipitation in most areas of the MPZ fluctuated around the average during this monitoring period. The spatial and temporal distribution characteristics were as follows: For 19.3% of the MPZ, precipitation was significantly above average  in mid-January, but returned to average levels in late January. It was mainly concentrated in most regions of Belarus, Slovakia, and Hungary, as well as in eastern Poland, western Romania, and western Russia. From early February to late March, the variation of precipitation in the MPZ fluctuated less. In April, regional precipitation continued to intensify in 23.1% of the MPZ until late April, when the region reached its maximum precipitation, mainly in southwestern Russia and in eastern Ukraine.

The map of the distribution of average temperature levels shows that in January, the trend of temperature changes in the MPZ showed significant east-west differences, with significant positive temperature departures in the eastern part of the MPZ (68.3% of the MPZ), mainly in western Russia, eastern Ukraine, and eastern Belarus. The western part of the MPZ (31.7% of the MPZ) reached the highest temperature departures in the first half of January, followed by a gradual decrease in temperatures in the region until the first half of February, when temperatures in the region were below average, mainly in the central part of Europe.  From late January to early April, 47.2% of the regions in the MPZ had above-average temperatures, mainly in west-central Russia and eastern Belarus.

During the monitoring period, the potential cumulative biomass in the MPZ was 10% higher than the average level. The potential cumulative biomass in most areas of the MPZ had increased to varying degrees. The potential cumulative biomass in the northeast of the MPZ is more than 10% higher, and the central and western regions of Russia are more than 20% higher. Affected by the drought in some areas, only a small part of the MPZ had low potential cumulative biomass. The areas with possible cumulative biomass lower than 20% were mainly distributed in southern Russia and southern Ukraine.

From January 1 to April 30, the cropped arable lands proportion was 68% (3% above average). The uncropped areas are mainly distributed in the northeastern part of Russia, and Ukraine. The average maximum VCI for the MPZ reached a value of 0.87. Despite the high potential cumulative biomass, most of northern Russia and northern Ukraine in the MPZ had an optimal vegetation condition index value that was below 0.8, mainly due to uncultivated land. The VHI minimum map shows that the drought had affected the eastern part of the MPZ and parts of Belarus.

Overall, CropWatch agroclimatic and agronomic indicators show that during this monitoring period, crop conditions were generally favorable.

                         a. Spatial distribution of rainfall profiles                             b. Profiles of rainfall departure from average (mm)

                          c. Spatial distribution of temperature profiles                     d. Profiles of temperature departure from average (℃)

                          e. Biomass accumulation potential departure                                            f. Cropped arable land

                          g. Maximum VCI                                                                                             h. VHI minimum