The first ten-day period of March 2020 was abnormally warm. The maximum air temperature reached 21-25 °С, in the western and northern regions it was 15-20 °С.
The average regional ten-day air temperature was 4.5–9.0°С in the western, Vinnytysa and Zhytomyr regions, in the rest of the country 9.1-12.5°С higher than the norm and amounted to 5.1–9, 7 °C.
Precipitation was observed for 1-7 days almost throughout the whole country in the form of rain, in places with wet snow. In the eastern, Odesa, Mykolayiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Poltava and Kirovograd regions the amount did not exceed 9-42% of the ten-day norm (1-5 mm), and there was no precipitation at all in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhya regions. In the Chernihiv, Sumy, Cherkasy, Vinnytsya, Chernivtsi and Rivne regions the ten-day rainfall amounted to 64-78% of the norm (7-10 mm). In the Kyiv, Zhytomyr and Khmelnitsky regions the ten-day rainfall was close to normal, and in the Volyn, Lviv, Ternopil, Ivano-Frankivsk and Transcarpathian regions it was from 127 to 269% of the norm (from 14 to 35 mm).
According to the definition of productive moisture reserves (sampling on March 9, 2020), the moisture supply of 0-20 cm of the soil layer under winter crops was sufficient and optimal (from 21 to 40 mm), in some places in the western, northern and central regions overmoistening of the tilth-top layer was noted (41-56 mm of productive moisture).
As of March 10, winter crops (rye, barley, wheat) restored vegetation throughout the country. Crops were in phases of tillering, formation of nodal roots, third leaf and in separate areas – seedlings. The condition of the crops was assessed as predominantly good and satisfactory. In some fields of the southern regions winter wheat was damaged by agricultural pests and diseases, sometimes stalk drying was observed, and in some areas of the Luhansk region local damage to plants was due to soaking. In winter rape in most areas the formation of a leaf rosette continued; stem growth was observed in some areas of the southern regions. The condition of the crops is mostly good and satisfactory.