Our farm is located near Szeged, Hungary. It is in the middle of a low-laying plain.

Climate

Hungary is influenced by 3 large climate areas: the wet and mild Western European Atlantic climate from the west, the cold and dry Continental climate from the east, and the Mediterranean climate from the south. The influence of the continental climate is the strongest, but there are big variations dictated by the shifting of the limits between the different climates. We are in a big lowland, so microclimates based on the topography are absent. The summers are typically hot, winters are cold. The Mediterranean effect is negligible. We are in a summer-rainfall area, but the summers feel dry because of the high temperatures.

Our climate in numbers:

Elevation: 83 m
Sunshine in a year: 2000 hours
Yearly precipitation: 500 mm
Highest temperature ever measured: 42 °C
Lowest temperature ever measured: -30 °C

I used GSOD data (Global Surface Summary of the Day from NOAA) to calculate the following table. It contains data from 1973 for Szeged. The meteorology station is near the airport, which is only a few kilometers from our farm, so the data can be applied to our farm with great precision.

Year	Min. temp.	Max. temp.	Precipitation (mm)	Longest dry spell (days)	Days with snow	Last frost	First frost	Days below 0 °C	Days below -5 °C	Days below -10 °C	Days below -15 °C	Days below -20 °C
1973	-17,0	34,0	342	45	24	03.23	10.13	101	28	6	2	0
1974	-7,0	35,0	613	29	8	04.20	10.18	53	2	0	0	0
1975	-10,0	32,0	592	37	17	03.22	10.20	93	27	0	0	0
1976	-19,0	34,0	445	37	32	03.30	10.21	96	33	8	2	0
1977	-16,0	35,0	482	30	26	04.21	09.29	69	21	5	1	0
1978	-18,0	32,0	578	57	26	05.13	10.22	87	18	5	2	0
1979	-15,0	35,0	437	34	15	04.20	10.25	65	22	8	0	0
1980	-20,0	34,0	453	23	26	04.13	10.20	85	38	12	2	0
1981	-16,0	36,0	511	34	29	04.20	10.29	82	39	15	1	0
1982	-14,5	33,4	406	30	18	04.24	11.06	85	33	6	0	0
1983	-14,6	37,3	347	45	22	03.16	10.23	93	39	6	0	0
1984	-14,4	35,3	513	23	34	04.29	10.17	93	25	3	0	0
1985	-22,1	35,1	500	35	40	03.30	10.17	90	45	35	22	3
1986	-18,4	34,4	346	51	46	05.31	10.06	112	33	6	2	0
1987	-27,8	35,9	465	42	32	03.24	10.27	88	59	21	9	3
1988	-16,6	38,8	398	26	26	04.25	10.26	102	22	6	1	0
1989	-11,2	34,3	512	56	14	03.28	10.05	87	21	3	0	0
1990	-12,2	34,9	392	31	19	03.19	09.29.	83	15	2	0	0
1991	-17,4	35,5	693	32	22	04.23	10.23	105	49	18	2	0
1992	-12,6	37,5	818	42	16	04.22.	10.13	93	21	3	0	0
1993	-17,3	36,3	553	28	36	04.10	10.27	118	43	16	4	0
1994	-11,0	36,2	398	20	18	04.04	10.10	74	18	2	0	0
1995	-11,8	34,0	441	39	31	04.15	10.23	95	27	6	0	0
1996	-20,0	35,1	282	41	49	04.15	10.26	100	41	14	4	0
1997	-14,4	34,0	344	33	19	04.24	10.18	116	29	5	0	0
1998	-14,8	36,0	561	38	16	04.15	10.06	108	44	15	0	0
1999	-14,0	35,1	779	26	36	03.25	10.16	105	20	5	0	0
2000	-13,0	38,0	240	53	19	04.09	10.22	101	17	4	0	0
2001	-24,9	38,2	704	34	28	04.16	10.28	95	37	13	5	2
2002	-14,3	38,1	370	29	19	04.08	10.08	82	21	10	0	0
2003	-24,9	37,2	434	68	31	04.10	10.16	120	61	27	9	1
2004	-15,8	36,5	662	30	40	03.29	11.20	84	28	10	2	0
2005	-20,7	35,5	646	57	48	04.03	10.20	118	36	18	9	2
2006	-14,1	34,3	515	24	38	03.25	10.17	90	25	10	0	0
2007	-11,0	40,0	541	24	24	04.23	10.14	79	14	1	0	0
2008	-12,6	38,7	461	22	17	03.27	11.15	73	23	3	0	0
2009	-17,2	36,1	485	27	28	03.27	10.31	73	27	9	3	0
2010	-15,4	35,0	806	21	50	03.18	10.22	89	32	15	2	0
2011	-12,7	38,3	346	41	34	03.22	10.15	104	34	3	0	0
2012	-22,5	39,4	399	38	35	04.10	10.30	92	41	21	8	4
2013	-10,8	38,2	556	25	36	04.01	10.04	89	15	1	0	0
2014	-13,5	34,5	789	25	9	03.26	10.27	49	14	2	0	0
2015	-13,7	37,4	444	34	16	04.19	11.01	66	9	1	0	0
2016	-10,1	35,7	583	16	18	03.28	11.04	83	22	2	0	0
2017	-18,3	39,3	434	41	20	04.22	11.04	81	31	11	3	0
2018	-19,6	35,0	546	39	32	03.28	11.15	72	17	4	2	0
2019	-13,6	36,9	503	52	17	03.28	10.08	67	12	2	0	0
2020	-7,3	36,4	539	36	0	04.16	11.21	62	8	0	0	0
Average	-15,8	35,9	504	35	26,2			88,5	27,8	8,3	2,0	0,3

Looking at the details You can see great year-to-year variations in every parameter. Yearly precipitation varies between 200 and 800, minimum temperature between -7 and -30 °C.

Also there are periods of 1 to 2 months in every year without precipitation. Typically it occurrs in the spring or summer. A good planning is needed to counteract the effect of these dry spells.

You can see from the table that really cold winters are rare. Winters below -20 °C occur every 10 years or so, and there are only a few days yearly with temperatures below -10 °C. If we plan to grow plants here from a warmer climate zone, then we have to protect them on those really cold days only.

Also, observation of plant coldhardiness is tricky here. We have to test for a long time, until a really cold winter arrives. A few years will not show a plant’s real hardiness.

Categorizing our climate is tricky.

The USDA plant hardiness zone system works with the average of annual minimum temperatures. Based on this data our farm is in zone 7a. But the year-to-year variation is huge, so we can safely grow plants from zone 6 only.

The Köppen Climate Classification also gives inconsistent results. Our area is a mosaic of Dfa (Hot-summer continental), Dfb (Warm-summer continental) and BSk (Cold semi-arid) zones.