In the first ten-day period of September 2020, the anticyclonic weather prevailed in Ukraine. There was no shift to autumn temperature yet (daily temperature lower than +15°C).
The average ten-day air temperature was one of the highest over the last 30 years in eastern part of the country (4-6°С higher than the norm). The average daily temperature exceeded the norm by 7-10°С in the warmest days.
The deficit of precipitation continued to observe across the entire territory of Ukraine. Only in the middle of the reporting period, a cold wave caused a decrease of temperature and small irregular rains. Precipitation was absent in eastern as well as in many regions of central and southern parts of Ukraine.
The sunshine duration to the soil surface varied from 67 to 105 hours that is up 10-40 hours compared with the standard.
The maximum air temperature reached +25-29°C in Volyn, Lviv, Rivne, Ternopil, Zakarpatska and Ivano-Frankivsk oblasts. The maximum air temperature reached +32-38°С across the rest of the country.
In many regions of Kharkov, Poltava, Dnipropetrovsk, Kherson, Mykolaiv as well as some regions of Zaporizhia, Cherkasy and Sumy oblasts the maximum temperature of the first ten-day period of September and the maximum temperature of full month over the whole period of monitoring since 1951 was reached or exceeded by 1°С.
The minimal air temperature declined to +6-10°С in chilly nights.
Small precipitation was observed during 1-5 days except Kharkov and Luhansk oblasts. Amount of rains totaled 1-5 mm in Rivne, Poltava, Cherkasy, Dnipropetrovsk, Kirovohrad, Zaporizhia and Donetsk oblasts. Rains were absent in Luhansk, Kharkov oblasts as well as in many regions of Donetsk, Zaporizhia, Dnipropetrovsk and some parts of Poltava and Zhytomyr oblasts.
The average temperature of the soil at the depth of 10 cm totaled +18-22°C in western and northern oblasts and +23-26°С across the rest of the country.
In the reporting period, the relative humidity of the air varied within the range of 35-84%. For 6-10 days the figures decreased to 30% and below in most of oblasts, except Volyn, Rivne, Ternopil, Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk.
For 1-3 days, the wind speed increased to 15-18 m/sec locally in eastern, western, Zhytomyr, Cherkasy and Dnipropetrovsk oblasts.
The air and soil drought intensified and extended amid hot and dry weather. The duration of drought reached 6-11 ten-day periods in some regions.
September 11-25 is an optimal window for planting of winter crops. Soil moisture content for winter planting is one of the worst over the last 10 years in Ukraine in 2020.
As of September 10, the area with dry or near-dry top soil increased up to 60-70%, top soil turned hard that complicated the soil preparation for winter planting. The soil at the depth of 0-10 cm was near-dry across 70-80% of the territory. Mass winter planting was counter-productive under such conditions. Moisture content at meter-deep layer of soil was nearly depleted across almost the entire territory, except western oblasts. Moisture content is the lowest over the last 50 years in some parts of central oblasts.
Moisture was sufficient across 15-20% of the territory (western oblasts).
Sprouting and quality of winter wheat will depend on precipitation on already planted fields.
Conditions were unfavorable for growth and development of winter rapeseed. The wilting untypical for autumn period was observed somewhere on fields where rapeseed was planted in August and where the sprouting was reached. Winter rapeseed mainly had broken seedlings.
According to the Ukrainian Hydrometeorological Center www.meteo.gov.ua
