Ukraine. The growing season is drawing to a close

Weather conditions. Rather alternating air temperatures were seen this past week. Above-freezing temperatures dominated early in the week, with their daily average values exceeding the minimum  biological level. Once the calendar winter began, air temperatures fell below zero, but then recovered to above-freezing levels by the weekend. The average daily air temperature was 0.7-6.5°С, or 2.0-2.7°C above normal. The ground surface cooled to 3-13°C below zero. The lowest soil temperature at the depth of the tillering node of winter wheat dropped to 5-11°C below zero.

Moisture supply. Early December witnessed precipitation in the form of rain and sleet almost all over the country. Its rates totaled 11-31 mm in Dnipropetrovsk region, 11-28 mm in Kherson region, 10-23 mm in Kharkiv region, 11-13.2 mm in Lviv region, 7.8-8.9 mm in Vinnytsia region, 3-5 mm in Zhytomyr region, 1-2 mm in Kyiv region. Cherkasy, Odesa and other regions received no precipitation. Minor snowfalls covered some fields with 0.5-10 cm of snow.

Crop condition. The average daily air temperature permanently decreased below +5°C (marking the end of the fall growing season according to meteorologists) on November 15-17 in the eastern regions and on November 17-21 in the south, i.e. 5-11 days later than average and 8-13 days later than last year. The growing season lasted for 256-261 days, or a month longer than in 2018.

Crop growth stages

UkrAgroConsult