From 10th to 20th February Ukraine had lasting high temperatures as for the winter which caused a long-term thaw. Due to warm weather, rains and fogs snow cover came off in almost all Ukraine territory and thawing of the soil began.
The frost in the west of Ukraine, in Zhytomyr, Vinnitsa and Odesa regions reached 2-6 ° C, in central regions – 7-10 ° С, in the north and north-east – 11-18 ° C. At times the air temperature rose and reached 5-10 ° С in the eastern Ukraine and northern Ukraine, in the rest of Ukraine up to 11-16 ° C.
Snow cover. By the end of the second ten-day period of February, the snow cover almost melted in the southern and central regions, only in some fields it reached 1–9 cm. Snow cover reached 10-25 cm in the Sumy, Lugansk, most districts of Chernigiv, Poltava, Kharkov, separate districts of Kiev, Cherkassy regions and in the Carpathian mountains, in the Carpathian highlands – up to 41-91 cm.
Due to warm temperatures in the southern and western regions, the growing season of winter crops began. In other areas of the country winter crops were in a state of winter dormancy. The freezing of the soil at the depth of tillering node of winter crops was minus 1-5 ° C, which exceeds the critical freezing temperature. The calculated critical freezing temperature of winter barley is minus 9-10 ° C, winter rye is minus14-16 ° C, winter wheat at the phase of germination – 3 leaves – minus 11-12 ° С, at the tillering stage – minus 13-14 ° С.