EUROPE

The recent spell of unsettled weather continued, with a series of fast-moving storm systems producing widespread showers from the Atlantic Coast into eastern Europe. Rain amounts for the week tallied between 5 and 50 mm in most primary winter crop areas, with locally higher totals (50-100 mm) reported in northern-  and western-most  growing  regions  and  in mountainous locales (Portugal, Alps and immediate environs,and central Romania). Moisture supplies remained favorable for winter crop establishment over much of Europe, though excessively wet conditions over the past 30 days (200-400 percent of normal) have impeded fieldwork and resulted in water-logged soils from western Bulgaria into Poland and northeastern Germany. In addition, another round of untimely heavy showers (locally more than 25 mm) in central Greece(Thessaly) further degraded the quality of unharvested cotton,a crop which has been besieged by untimely heavy rains during the open boll and maturity stages since mid-September.Temperatures averaged 2 to 4°C above normal over much of Europe, with near-normal temperatures confined to southern-most growing areas.