Snow and cold would be badly needed on farmland, but December brought autumn-like, gloomy and mild weather, with frost occurring only sporadically, HungaroMet Zrt. wrote in its agrometeorological analysis.
According to the analysis, recent days have been characterized by overcast, humid and foggy weather, with light rain or drizzle occurring in many places, though without any significant precipitation. On Tuesday, a Mediterranean cyclone approached the country from the southwest, causing winds to pick up nationwide, clearing the foggy air, while precipitation fell in many areas in western regions.
The 90-day precipitation total continues to show a significant deficit compared to average almost nationwide; only in the Northern Hungarian Mountains has more rain fallen than is typical for this time of year.
On a national average, December will also be a dry month. In 2025, only March and November recorded above-average precipitation, meaning annual rainfall is extremely low. Based on current data, this year will rank among the three driest since 1970, with only 2010 and 2000 seeing less precipitation over the entire year.
Near the surface, the soil is close to saturation, and in much of the country the moisture content of the middle soil layers is also adequate. However, on the Great Plain the soil remains dry below the 20–30 centimeter level, and significant moisture has reached soil layers deeper than half a meter only in northern and western parts of the country.
Over the past week, temperatures exceeded the average by about 2 degrees Celsius in the southwest and by 6–7 degrees in eastern and northeastern areas. Widespread frost occurred only last Wednesday and Thursday, and even then temperatures generally did not fall below minus 5 degrees Celsius; nights have been frost-free since.
Rapeseed and winter cereals are finding sufficient moisture in the soil, but looking ahead, an increasingly serious problem is that deeper soil layers on the Great Plain remain dry. In these areas, further substantial precipitation—primarily in the form of snow—would be needed, but for the time being there is no prospect of this.
According to the forecast, the weather will turn sunnier in the coming days. On Wednesday and Thursday, mixed precipitation is still expected across larger areas in the south and southwest, with as much as 10–20 millimeters possible in the southwest, while no precipitation at all is expected in the northeast.
The weather system bringing precipitation will move away from the region on Thursday, and airflow over the area will shift permanently to northerly. As a result, cold but mostly dry air masses will arrive over the Carpathian Basin in several waves during the final days of the year.
From Thursday onward, sunshine will appear over increasingly large areas, while precipitation will be scarce at most, meaning soil replenishment on the Great Plain will continue to be delayed. Temperatures will fall, nighttime frosts are expected, while during the day the mercury will rise only slightly above freezing.
(MTI)
