Weather conditions were quite remarkable in Slovakia during the whole year of 2020. In terms of annual mean temperature, year 2020 was very warm, with temperature very much above normal and deviations ranging mostly from +1.3 to +1.6 ° C from the normal 1981-2010 (in mountain regions even more than +1.7 ° C). With the exception of spring 2020, all other seasons were significantly above normal in terms of seasonal temperature, especially the winter 2019/2020. From the point of view of the amount of atmospheric precipitation, last year has mostly the above-normal precipitation. This was mainly due to the frequent occurrence of thunderstorm torrential rainfalls during the summer and due to the exceptionally above-normal precipitation in October, when extreme widespread rainfalls occurred in some regions of western and eastern Slovakia between 11 and 15 October. The second half of the year was thus significantly different from the point of view of the precipitation balance in comparison with the period from 10 March to approximately 15 May, when exceptionally dry conditions prevailed in Slovakia. The drought in Slovakia in year 2020 was dominant mostly in the spring, mainly in April and in the beginning of May. The lack of soil moisture was caused by the very low level of the snow cover in the previous winter months and the weather was also influenced by the long-term anticyclone in April 2020. This month was very dry in the major part of Slovakia and the extreme drought hit 24.3 % of the area of Slovakia. The unfavourable situation was registered in various regions by our reporters, in both the agricultural and forestry sectors. In summer the situation was stable and the severe drought didn´t occurred. In September the mild drought was only in the eastern part of Slovakia. October was humid in several regions. The severe and extreme soil drought in November was expressed in the first half of December in the north-western and middle part of Slovakia.
Key words: extreme drought, April 2020
How to cite: Turňa, M., Ivaňáková, G., Krčová, I., Mrekaj, I., and Ridzoň, J.: Drought assessment and the impacts on the agriculture and the forestry in Slovakia in 2020, EMS Annual Meeting 2021, online, 6–10 Sep 2021, EMS2021-33, https://doi.org/10.5194/ems2021-33, 2021.
