During the current monitoring period, dormant winter crops in central Europe to western Russia were in the vegetative stage. The agroclimatic indicators showed favorable condition for crop growing, with a 16% increase of rainfall over average—which provided ample soil moisture—and a 0.5°C increase in temperature, while radiation was below average by 5%.

Temperature profiles showed correlated variations from February to April for most countries in the MPZ. The whole region experienced high temperatures from late-January to March (as much as 8°C above average in the east, including most of southwestern Russia which forms almost 63% of the MPZ), which had positive effects on the development of winter crops. Temperatures in most areas started to fall starting in April, and more than 3°C below average values occurred in Belarus, Poland, and western Ukraine in late-April. As indicated by the rainfall profiles, the north of central Europe to western Russia—about two thirds of the MPZ’s territory, enjoyed above average precipitation over the monitoring period, including Poland (RAIN, +23%), Belarus (RAIN, +31%), and the northern part of Ukraine and southern Russia. The maximum precipitation occurred in early-January when precipitation was 90% above average in Romania and in the south of Ukraine. Unfavorable rainfall was recorded in southern Russia (from the kray of Krasnodar to the Kabardino balkariya republic) in late-January and early-April.

As a result of the large precipitation increase and above average temperature, the biomass accumulation potential (BIOMSS) of the MPZ was 5% above the recent five-year average. However, a decrease (more than 20%) in BIOMSS occurred in Krasnodarskiy kray in Russia and Timis in Romania. The maximum VCI (0.65) is lower than those of other MPZs. According to the maximum VCI map of this monitoring period, most pixels were below 0.5 in southwestern Russia, where most uncropped arable land concentrated. Across the MPZ, 72% of arable lands were cropped in the monitoring period, a decrease of 8 percentage points compared to the recent five-year average for this indicator.

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 (°C)

e. Maximum VCI                                                      g.  Biomass accumulation potential departure

h. VHI minimum                                                         f. Cropped arable land