Rainy conditions continue to hamper sowing and crop establishment in much of Europe

The November issue of the JRC MARS Bulletin - Crop monitoring in Europe, published today, presents wetter-than-usual conditions in large parts of northern and western Europe for October and early November, while in the south east dry and warm weather persisted.

Frequent and abundant rainfall continued to delay field operations in France, Italy, Benelux countries, the British Isles, northern Germany, and southern Sweden over the period of review (1 October to 20 November 2019).

Rainfall was particularly intense in southern France and northern and central Italy.

While the sowing campaign of winter cereals has been practically completed in central Europe, some obstacles to sowing, emergence, and crop establishment in the field remain in the overly wet regions of western and northern Europe, as well as in Italy.

In Spain, Portugal and Greece, sowing has progressed fairly well.

By contrast, the central Balkan region, large parts of Turkey and Ukraine, the southern part of the Iberian Peninsula, and western Morocco experienced a lack of rainfall, with less than half the long-term average recorded.

Eastern and south-eastern Europe were also affected by extraordinarily warm weather.

These conditions hampered sowing and continue to affect crop establishment in southern Romania and northern Bulgaria.

Further information

MARS bulletins - crop monitoring in Europe

The next Bulletin will be published on 16 December 2019