In Romania, July to October precipitation was below average by 27%. The country suffered a long period with very scarce rainfall, which was broken in mid-September but with a significant decrease in temperatures (TEMP, -0.9°C). The prolonged drought followed by a cold period was unfavorable for sowing and early development of winter rape seed and then cereals. Potential biomass accumulation is currently predicted 17% below the average of the recent five years.

In August about 30% of agricultural land suffered worse than average crop condition. The area along the southern border of the country (from southwest Oltenia Doj, through Olt and Teleorman until Constanta through south Muntenia, and until southwest Romania), representing 9.6% of the area, experienced particularly negative departures from the five-year average, with maximum VCIs between 0.5 and 0.8, and often below 0.5.

According to the NDVI profiles, crop condition since August was continuously below average as a consequence of unfavorable weather. In the south and southeast, NDVI was below the average of the last five years, whereas in the Carpatian region and the western part of the country the profiles were above the average. The overall maximum VCI was 0.86, indicating close to average summer crops production; colder than usual meteorological conditions could have caused a slowdown of the development of winter crop seedlings.

(a) Crop condition development graph based on NDVI   

(b) Maximum VCI

(c) Spatial NDVI patterns compared to 5YA and the coresponding NDVI departure profiles