2.6 Western Europe

In general, crop condition was below average at the scale of the Western European MPZ, resulting from a combination of negative and positive extremes. The figures present an overview of CropWatch agroclimatic and agronomic indicators for this MPZ.

Total rainfall was 10% below average over the region, resulting from marked negative departures in the Czech Republic, most of Germany, northeast Austria, northeast Hungary, south-central Slovakia, western and northern France, southeast Italy, England,Denmark. The most severely affected four countries were Denmark (-48%), Germany (-33%), the Czech Republic (-23%) and England (-15%). In these regions, water stress affected the flowering and grain filling of winter crops and spring cereals. Exceptional positive departures, however, were recorded (i) in early-April, late-May, and late June over most of England, Denmark and northern France and (ii) from mid-May to mid-June in Spain, most of France, Italy, Hungary, southeast Austria, southwest Slovakia, southwest Germany. More rain is needed in some Northern European countries for summer crops. Abundant and locally very intense rainfall in North-central Italy, France and Spain caused lodging and water logging. Radiation for the MPZ as a whole was above average with RADPAR at +3%.

Temperature for the MPZ as a whole was above average (+1.7°C). Warm weather was observed in the whole MPZ before mid-June; coupled with a persistent rainfall deficit it affected winter crops flowering or grain filling in large parts of Northern and east-central Western European MPZ. Warmer-than-usual weather conditions continued to prevail throughout in England, France and Spain from mid-June to July, and throughout in Denmark and Germany in July. According to national source of climatic information, June and July was the warmest in large parts of the England, Denmark since 1975. High temperature shortened the graining filling stage of crops and accelarated the maturity which reduced crop yields. Below average temperatures were observed from late-June to early July in most of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Austria, Italy and southern Germany.

The agroclimatic conditions mentioned above resulted in a drop of the  the biomass accumulation potential  BIOMSS, which was 10% below the recent five-year average. The lowest BIOMSS values (-20% and less) occurred in Denmark, most of Germany, West-central of the Czech Republic, Northeast Austria, Northeast France and most of England. In contrast, BIOMSS was above average (sometimes exceeding a 10% departure) in the southwest Slovakia, most of Hungary, Italy, southwest France and Spain. The average maximum VCI for the MPZ reached a value of 0.91 during this reporting period. More than 96% of arable lands were cropped, which is the same as the recent five-year average. Most uncropped arable land is concentrated in Spain, with more patchy distribution in other counties.

Generally, crop condition in the Western Europe MPZ was mixed: unfavorable in the north and favorable in the south. The overall situation is expected to be below average considering the persistent high temperature

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Figure 2.5a. Western Europe MPZ spatial distribution of rainfall profiles (left) and profiles of rainfall departure from average (mm) (right), April-July 2018

Figure 2.5b. Western Europe MPZ spatial distribution of temperature profiles (left) and profiles of temperature departure from average (℃) (right), April-July 2018

Figure 2.5c. Western Europe MPZ maximum VCI, April-July 2018 

            (d)   Maximum VCI                                                             (e)   Cropped arable land

(f)   biomass accumulation potential                                                      (g)   VHI minimum,