Crop in the United Kingdom showed generally favorable condition over the reporting period.Currently, wheat, winter barley, spring barley, and rapeseed are in the vegetative stages. The United Kingdom experienced sufficient rainfall and favorable temperature, which promoted the development of winter crops. Compared to the average, the country experienced an increase in the RAIN indicator of 21%,an increase in TEMP of 1°C, and 3% more RADPAR. With the positive moisture and thermal anomalies, BIOMSS is expected to increase by 2% compared to the five-yeara verage at the national scale. As shown by the crop condition developmentgraph, national NDVI values were below average from early January to early March, after which they rose above average and even close to the five-yearmaximum. The spatial NDVI patterns compared to the five-year average and corresponding NDVI departure cluster profiles also indicate above average NDVI values over the country for more than 42.3% of arable land after March. Arecent deterioration occurred in the southeast (41.7% of the cropped areas). This spatial pattern is also reflected by the maximum VCI in the different areas,with a VCIx of 0.87 for the country overall. Generally, the agronomicindicators mentioned above indicate favorable condition for most winter crop areas of the United Kingdom at this point in the season.

Figure3.14. United Kingdom crop condition, January-April2015

a)Crop condition development graph based on NDVI                                (b) Maximum VCI

(c)Spatial NDVI patterns compared to 5YA                                                      (d) NDVI profile