In the second ten-day period of February, a stable winter weather regime was observed in Ukraine. In terms of the average ten-day temperature, this was the coldest ten-day period of this winter. With the movement of a series of active cyclones through the territory of Ukraine, strong winds, snowstorms, and drifts on the roads were observed in most regions. Precipitation mainly in the form of snow in terms of quantity and intensity in some areas reached the hazard criterion.
The average regional air temperature for a ten-day period in most of the country was 1.6-4.0 °C below normal and ranged from minus 3.0 °C to minus 9.0 °C. In the Kirovohrad, Cherkasy, Kyiv, Chernigiv, Sumy and Poltava regions the average regional ten-day air temperature turned out to be 4.5-6.0 °С lower than the norm and amounted to minus 9.1-12.2 °С.The minimum air temperature in most regions decreased to minus 20-25 °С, and in the Sumy, Chernigiv and Cherkasy regions – down to minus 26-29 °С, in the Odesa, Chernivtsi, Dnipropetrovsk and Transcarpathian regions – down to minus 14-19 °С.
Precipitation was noted for 2-9 days. The amount of precipitation over a ten-day period in the western, Zhytomyr and Chernigiv regions exceeded the norm by 1.5-3.0 times (19-39 mm). In the Odesa, Mykolayiv, Kherson, Zaporozhzhya and Donetsk regions the ten-day rainfall was 35-53% of the norm (6-8 mm). In the rest of the country, the total precipitation was close and slightly less than normal (10-20 mm).
As of February 20, in most of the country, the height of the snow cover reached 11-39 cm. Most of the areas of the Luhansk, Donetsk, Odesa, some areas of the Kherson and Mykolayiv regions at the end of the ten-day period there was no snow on the fields.
Winter crops during the ten-day period were in a state of winter dormancy. Due to the large amount of precipitation during the ten-day period, in the fields of most regions, a reliable snow cover has increased or formed. As a result, there was no significant threat of freezing, winter crops were overwintered under satisfactory conditions.