In the first ten-day period of March 2019, Ukraine mainly faced the western air-mass transport. The active meteorological processes — interchange of the high atmospheric pressure areas and atmospheric fronts, which had a decisive influence upon the weather — caused not only a strong advection of heat in the last days of the reporting period, but also provided numerous adverse meteorological phenomena. There were observed fogs, thunderstorms, hails, gale force winds, etc. In mountainous raions of the Carpathians, the snow cover again started forming.
Generally, in the first ten-day period of March Ukraine faced the abnormally warm weather for the beginning of the reporting month. In the reporting period, the average air temperature reached one of the highest figures for several recent years. Also, in some observation points the figures totaled or exceeded the maximum air temperatures for the first ten-day period of March, as well as on certain days.
On the territory of not only southern, but also some raions of western, central and northern oblasts, Ukraine faced rather abnormal relative atmospheric humidity for the early spring period, in the daytime the figures reached 30% and below.
In the most part of the country, the average oblast air temperature increased by 4.9-7.3°C compared with the standard rates, and totaled +4.1...6.8°C, while in eastern oblasts, Poltava, Sumy and Chernihiv oblasts — +1.3...3.6°C.
The minimum air temperature reduced to -5...-10°C, while in Khmelnytskyi, Kyiv, Chernihiv, Sumy and Kirovohrad oblasts — to -11...-16°C.
In addition, the maximum air temperature increased to +17...22°C, but in eastern oblasts, Dnipropetrovsk, Poltava, Sumy, Rivne and Volyn oblasts — to +13...16°C. In some raions of Chernihiv, Kyiv, Zhytomyr, Vinnytsia, Khmelnytskyi, Ternopil and Chernivtsi oblasts, the maximum air temperature almost increased by 1-2°C compared with the absolute peaks of the first ten-day period of March for the monitoring period of 1951-2018.
At night, in most part of the country the soil surface temperature cooled to -7...-13°C, while in Kyiv, Cherkasy, Poltava, Chernihiv and Sumy oblasts — to -14...-20°C. On the warmest days, the soil surface heated to nearly +26...38°C, while in eastern oblasts, Poltava, Sumy, Chernihiv, Rivne, Volyn, Lviv, Zakarpattia and Ivano-Frankivsk oblasts — to +16...25°C.
For 2-5 days, precipitations in the form of sleet and rain developed throughout the whole territory of the country. In most oblasts, the average precipitation depth did not exceed 22-50% of the ten-day standard (2-5 mm). In Donetsk, Kirovohrad, Cherkasy, Kyiv, Rivne, Ivano-Frankivsk and Zakarpattia oblasts, the ten-day precipitation depth totaled 56-73% of the standard (5-9 mm). In Kherson oblast, there were no precipitations at all. In Kharkiv, Poltava, Chernihiv, Zhytomyr and Volyn oblasts, the ten-day precipitation depth varied at the standard level, but in Sumy and Luhansk oblasts the figures totaled 133-142% of the standard — 8-17 mm.
In the reporting period, the relative humidity of the air in the country varied within the average range of 54-82%. For 1-4 days, in some raions of southern, western oblasts (except for Volyn and Rivne oblasts), Vinnytsia, Kyiv, Chernihiv, Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk oblasts in the daytime hours the figures decreased to 30% and below.
At the end of the reporting period, there were observed some remains of snow cover in some raions of Sumy oblast with the depth of 1 cm, as well as in the Carpathian mountains — 22 cm. At the meteorological station Pozhezhevska (Ivano-Frankivsk oblast), the snow cover depth even reached 68-108 cm.
As of 10 March, there were thawed soil processes in most territory of the country. In some raions of Sumy and Luhansk oblasts, the fields faced slight freezing of the soil (2-5 cm).
For 1-7 days, throughout the most part of the country (except for Sumy oblast), the wind speed increased to 15-24 m/s, and in Ivano-Frankivsk oblast — to 25-28 m/s.
During some fall in temperature in the beginning of the ten-day period, the minimum soil temperature at the tillering zone depth of winter crops (3 cm) reduced to 0°...-5°C.
In the first ten-day period of March, winter wheat areas renewed its vegetation processes in southern, western oblasts (except for Lviv oblast), most central oblasts (except for Poltava oblast), Zhytomyr oblast, and in some raions of Kyiv and Sumy oblasts. The planted areas under winter crops were in the stages of third leaf formation and tillering, as well as started sprouting in some fields.
In Khmelnytskyi, Kyiv and Dnipropetrovsk oblasts, the areas under winter barley started the vegetation processes — the stages of tillering, third leaf formation, and sprouting.
In the second half of the reporting period, winter rye areas resumed its vegetation processes, including the stages of third leaf, tillering, and sprouting.
Until the end of the reporting period, winter rapeseed also renewed its vegetation processes, and reached the stage of bud formation.
In the remaining part of the month, the weather conditions for further crops development in Ukraine will be quite good.
According to the Ukrainian Hydrometeorological Center www.meteo.gov.ua
