The Hydrometeorological Center of Russia forecasted rather good harvest of winter crops in 2019, declared the scientific leader of the Hydrometeorological Research Center of the Russian Federation (Hydrometcenter of Russia), Roman Vilfand.
He explained such expectations of the high harvest volumes by the favourable combination of the agro-meteorological factors, which developed throughout almost whole European part of Russia.
To date, the snow cover depth in the European part of Russia totaled nearly 1.5-2 times compared with the standard. Also, such indicators as snow density and water equivalent of snow cover were higher, R.Vilfand said.
He stressed that in most regions, the depth of soil freezing under the natural snow cover did not exceed 10 cm, in terms of the standard of 40-50 cm. All water content appearing from the snow during melting processes, will get absorbed to the soil. Such situation will create excellent conditions for the further harvest of winter crops, the expert explained.
At the same time, the favourable conditions developed, due to the fact that in terms of the high temperatures in November and December 2018, there were observed the large-scale snowfalls. Therefore, the soil did not have time to completely freeze, and the snow cover bundle up it, and kept the summer heat. Such natural anomalies were observed not very frequently — once every 5-10 years, said R.Vilfand.
