In the first ten-day period of August 2019, Ukraine demonstrated rather unstable weather conditions with the major fluctuations in air temperature. On cool days (in the first half of the reporting period), the average daily air temperature reduced by 3-8°C compared with the standard, but on the last days of the period the figures exceeded the standard by 3-7°C. The daytime air temperature throughout the country almost reached or exceeded +30°C.
In the reporting ten-day period, several active weather fronts and cyclones moved across the country, accompanied with heavy rains, squalls and hail. On August 3-4, in southern and eastern oblasts there was observed the greatest depth of precipitation, when the active cyclone moved from the south-west to the east of the country. In some raions of the reporting oblasts, there were observed heavy rains, when the precipitation depth reached 130-220% of the monthly standard, while in Chorly (Kherson oblast) — 105 mm, Zaporizhia (according to the SE Ukrainian Aviation Meteorological Center) — 121 mm, Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi (Odessa oblast) — 126 mm, which reached three monthly standards, and met the criterion of the dangerous or disaster meteorological phenomenon.
Also, in northwestern oblasts Ukraine faced rather large depth of precipitation, in terms of moving of the weather front on August 8.
In the reporting period, the sunshine duration to the soil surface varied within 73-107 hours, which varied within the standard rates throughout the most territory of the country, but slightly lowered in the north of Chernihiv oblast, while in Volyn oblast the figures exceeded the standard by 12 hours.
The average air temperature for the ten-day period varied from + 16.8°C in the north to +22°C in the south of the country. In most territory of the country, the figures reduced by 1.0-3.3°C compared with the standard. In western and southern oblasts (except for Zaporizhia oblast), Vinnytsia and Zhytomyr oblasts, the average air temperature varied at the standard level, while in Chernivtsi, Ivano-Frankivsk and Zakarpattia oblasts — up 1.4-1.8°C compared with the standard.
On the warmest days, the maximum air temperature increased to +30…34°C. For 1-6 days, the maximum temperature figures exceeded +30°C in most oblasts of Ukraine, except for Zhytomyr and Volyn oblasts.
In the coldest nights, the minimum air temperature declined to +4…9°C, while in Ternopil, Chernivtsi, Odessa, Mykolaiv and Kherson oblasts — to +10…12°C.
On the warmest days, the soil surface heated to nearly +50…63°C, while at night time it cooled to +3…9°C, while in southern oblasts (except for Zaporizhia oblast), Chernivtsi and Zakarpattia oblasts — to +10…11°C.
For 2-6 days, there were uneven precipitations (from slight and moderate to heavy rains) throughout almost whole territory of the country, with squalls, thunderstorms and hails in some raions. In southern and eastern oblasts (except for Kharkiv oblast), Dnipropetrovsk and Kirovohrad oblasts, there was observed the largest depth of precipitation — within 2-7 of the ten-day standards (24-67 mm). In Volyn, Zhytomyr, Kyiv, Chernihiv, Rivne and Kharkiv oblasts, the figures reached 86-153% of the standard (16-29 mm). In the remaining part of the country, the depth of precipitation varied within 55-75% of the standard (11-17 mm), while in Poltava and Ternopil oblasts — 40-50% of the standard (6-11 mm).
In Kyrylivka (Zaporizhia oblast), there was observed the largest level of precipitation depth in the reporting period — 109 mm, followed by Chorly (Kherson oblast) — 106 mm, and Bakhmut (Donetsk oblast) — 95 mm.
In some raions of Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhia oblasts, the figures exceeded the largest depth of precipitation in the first ten-day period of August for the follow-up period of 1961-2018 by 1-11 mm, while in Donetsk and Mykolaiv oblasts — up 12-30 mm.
In some raions of southern, central and eastern oblasts, the daily maximum precipitation reached 25-88 mm. In Chorly (Kherson oblast), Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi (Odessa oblast), and Zaporizhia (according to the SE Ukrainian Aviation Meteorological Center), the daily figures reached three monthly standards of precipitation (106-121mm).
The average temperature of the soil at the depth of 10 cm varied from +19°C in the north, to +29°C in the south. For 6-10 days, throughout whole territory of the country in some observation hours the figures increased to +25°C and even above.
In the reporting period, the relative humidity of the air in the country varied within the average range of 60-77%. For 1-4 days throughout the most part of the country, except for Zhytomyr and Vinnytsia oblasts, in daytime the figures reduced to 30% and below.
For 1-3 days, in most oblasts, except for Chernivtsi and Ivano-Frankivsk oblasts, the wind speed increased to 15-26 m/s.
In the first ten-day period of August, the agro-meteorological conditions were rather inhomogeneous and controversial in its impact on agricultural crops. In central oblasts (in particular Cherkasy, Poltava, Sumy oblasts), there were observed the least favourable weather conditions, due to the reduced air temperature figures and moisture deficit in the soil on most days, because there were the minimum level of precipitation depth in the summer.
The low air temperatures, especially rather cold nights (+6…9°C in northern, eastern and central oblasts), were unfavourable for completion of the vegetation processes of corn, sunflower seed, soybeans, which biological minimum usually totals +12…15°C. On some days, the light rains were observed in the reporting oblasts, which were insufficient to replenish the moisture reserves in the meter soil layer — they continued declining, while the topsoil layers were completely dry.
In the summer months (June - the first ten-day period of August), the average air temperature in Ukraine exceeded the standard by 1-2.5°C. In the period, the minimum average oblast precipitation level was observed in Ternopil, Vinnytsia, Cherkasy, Sumy, Chernihiv, Poltava and Donetsk oblasts (55-65% of the standard), while in the remaining oblasts the precipitation depth varied within 70-170% of the standard.
The condition of agricultural crop areas was mostly good. According to the preliminary forecast of meteorologists, in the remaining part of August 2019 Ukraine will face the optimum weather conditions for ending of the harvesting campaign.
According to the Ukrainian Hydrometeorological Center www.meteo.gov.ua
