Frost comes less and less in the month of “Gerar”, and frost is harder to find in the month of “Brumărel”. There are periods of heat almost every year in June, and summer continues in September. August replaced July as the hottest month, and March and October tend to be wetter than normal. How weird has Romania’s climate been over the last decade? What was special about each month of the year?

Brief information:

• January has continued to be warm over the past decade with an unusually high number of days above 15C. Few will forget the first month of 2023, which broke heat records everywhere and also brought nights with lows of 11-14C. Severe frosts are becoming rarer.

• April was very warm in some years with highs over 30C, but there was also snow after April 15 and frost after April 25. April was almost a summer month in 2018. And March and May were often much warmer than usual.

• The sixth month of the year, June, has been unseasonably warm over the past decade with average temperatures over 20C, days over 35C and tropical nights. The rainiest month in the last decade was June 2018.

• A trade-off occurred, and in many places August was on average warmer than July, although the seventh month brought the highest average temperatures. In August, there were hot days in the first half, and towards the end of the month the weather does not cool down much, as it did in the 70s and 80s, when there were nights with lows below 10 degrees.

• The first month of autumn, September, was very warm several times between 2014 and 2022. The same was the case in February, which featured several times with well above average temperatures. In the second month of the year, the temperature exceeds 20 degrees Celsius.

• There has not been a very cold October in the last ten years, and November has brought the country temperatures above 25 degrees Celsius on several occasions, and frost rarely occurs at the end of this month. Autumn sometimes lasts a little bit of December.

• We no longer see snow in December, and the last month of the year has been too warm several times in the last decade, with temperatures above 15 degrees C in the mountains and over 21 C in the plains. Several times December was very dry.

• In March and October, the amount of precipitation mostly exceeded the norm. June is Romania’s rainiest month and they have established new rain “poles” such as Stâna de Vale.

• The coldest month in a decade was January 2017, a once-in-a-decade month. The warmest month was July 2021, and we will have such months in the following years as well.

• The lowest temperature in the last decade was -34.7 C in Intorsura Buzăului on January 8, 2015, and the highest was +42.2 C on August 6, 2017 in Calafat.

What was every month of the year from 2013 to 2023

January

The average indicator for the last six decades at the national level: -2.1 C

The warmest January on record was in 2023, the warmest months were in 2014, 2018 and 2021. In 2013, the average temperature was almost 7 degrees above normal, and there were places where there were more than 15 days with highs above 10 degrees. The absolute maximum was +22.5°С in Turnu-Magurele.

January 2017 was the coldest in the last decade (average value -5.9 C).

The month was extremely wet in 2021 and 2019 and very dry in 2020 (seven times less than 2021).

The lowest average monthly temperature in the country was -12.7 C in 2017 in Omo, and the highest was +6.9 C in 2023 in Constanta. How much can the average monthly temperature change in one place? Here is an example for Lip Turn: -9.7 C (2017) and +2.4 C (2023).

February

The average indicator for the last six decades at the national level: +0.1 С

The warmest February on record was 2016 with an average temperature of +4.9 C and a maximum temperature of +26 C. Even in Intorsura Buzăului, where it was -35 C in February 2005, the maximum temperature reached +20.9 C.

The months of 2020, 2022 and 2014 were also very warm.

No February has been in the top 10 coldest months in the past decade, with the last extremely cold February being in 2012 (average temperature -6.6C).

The very wet month was 2018, while 2014 and 2022 brought February with little rain and snow.

Example of fluctuations in average monthly temperature in February: Bucharest, from +1.5 C in 2017 to +6.7 C in 2016.

March

The average indicator for the last six decades at the national level: +3.9 C

The third month was very warm in 2014 and 2017 (average temperature 7.2 C), as well as in 2019, 2020 and 2016.

No March was in the top 15 coldest months of the past decade, but several Marches were among the wettest months: 2018, 2013, 2016, and 2021. On the other hand, March 2022 and 2019 were drier. In March 2018, five times more rain fell than in 2022.

Example of change in average monthly temperature in March: Stâna de Vale, from -3 C (2022) to +2.1 C (2017).

April

The average indicator for the last six decades at the national level: +9.8 C

2018 (average temperature 14.1 C) and 2016 were the warmest months on record. April 2018 was also one of the driest months.

No “Prier” month in the past decade has been much colder than normal, although there have been periods of frost after April 25th and snow after April 15th.

2014 was the second wettest April on record, while 2020 brought the driest month with more than six times less precipitation.

An example of fluctuations in the average monthly temperature in April: Timisoara, from +8.7 C (2021) to +16.1 C (2016).

May

The average indicator for the last six decades at the national level: +14.9 C

May 2018 was the second warmest on record (average temperature 17.3 C), while May 2015 was above average.

No May in the past decade has made Florar’s list of coldest months since complete weather records exist, but it was unusually cool in 2019 and next year.

The fifth month was wet in 2019 and 2014, but the last decade has not seen a very dry month.

An example of fluctuations in the average monthly temperature in May: Brasov +12.5 C (2016) and +16.2 C (2018).

June

The average indicator for the last six decades at the national level: +18.8 C

The month of “Cireşar” has almost always been unusually warm over the past decade, the best example being 2019 with an average temperature of +20.9 C. Other years with a “hot” June were 2022, 2017, 2016 and 2018. .

June was not among the 15 coldest months on record, but the sixth month of 2021 was slightly cooler.

2018 was the second wettest June in 60 years, with heavy rainfall also recorded in 2020 and 2016. On the other hand, June 2022 was the third driest month.

An example of the change in the average monthly temperature in June: Sulina, from +20.4 C in 2021 to +24.4 C in 2019.

July

Average national temperature for the past six decades: 20.5 C

July 2012 (average temperature +22.5°C) and 2022 (average temperature +22.1°C) were extremely warm.

No July has topped the list of coldest months in the past decade, and that’s no surprise, since the frigid summer weather of the 70s is long gone.

Two Julys were very wet in the last decade, in 2014 and 2018. The second driest July was July 2015, but 2013 also saw very little rain.

The highest average monthly temperature measured in the country over the last decade: +27.2 C, in Drobeta-Turnu-Severin, in July 2021. It was also +26.5 C in Calafat that month.

Example of change in average monthly temperature in July: Suceava, between +19.6 C in 2019 and +23.6 C in 2021.

August

The average indicator for the last six decades at the national level: +20.3 C

It was an above-normal month in almost every year of the past decade, with the exception of 2014 and 2016. July was, according to long-term averages, the warmest month of the year everywhere below 2000 m, but August managed to become the warmest in a decade. The warmest August months were in 2015 and 2018.

Under these conditions of excessive summer heat, it is not surprising that there has not been a single month of August below normal in the last ten years. And the nights are getting warmer, so they are hard to bear. For example, in August 2018 in Constanta, there was no night minimum below 18 degrees Celsius.

No August in the last 17 years has brought excess precipitation to the entire country, and August 2018 was among the top ten droughts.

An example of the change in the average monthly temperature in August: Sulina, from +23.8 C in 2019 to +25.3 C in 2018.

September

The average indicator for the last six decades at the national level: +14.7 C

The months of 2020 and 2015 were very warm (above 17 C on average), but so were 2016 and 2019. Only one September in the last decade topped the coldest month on record: IX 2013.

In 2015, September was not only very hot, but also very rainy. On the other hand, the ninth month of 2018 was very dry.

An example of fluctuations in the average monthly temperature in September: Oradea, from +16.6 C to +18.9 C.

October

Average national temperature for the past six decades: 9.8 C

October has been warm in recent years, especially in 2020 (average temperature 12 C) and 2018. Among the warmest months was also 2019. In the month of Brumărel, frosts are becoming rarer: compared to the 80s and 90s, there are places where frosty nights in October appear less and less.

The top of the coldest months of October was 2016 with an average temperature of +8.2 C, which is 1.2 C more than in the coldest October in history (1997).

Over the past decade, October has been super-rainy several times: in 2016, 2017 and 2020. A year earlier, October was dry, with six times less precipitation than in 2016.

Example of variation in average monthly temperature in October: Mercury-Chuk, between +4.6 C in 2021 and +8.7 C in 2020.

November

The average indicator for the last six decades at the national level: +4.8 C

November has brought T-shirt temperatures in recent years, with 2019 being the warmest on record with an average of +8.8 C. Novembers were also warm in 2015 and 2021.

None of the recent decades made Brumar’s list of coldest months in the last 70 years. It was only at the end of November 2018 that it was extremely cold (and freezing in many regions).

November was rainy in 2015 and dry in 2020.

An example of changes in the average monthly temperature in November. Kalarashi, from 6 C in 2020 to +11.7 C in 2019.

December

The average indicator for the last six decades at the national level: +0.2 C

December has been warm several times over the last decade. 2020 was the warmest year with a new record average temperature of 3.0C, but the last month of the year was also well above average in 2019, 2015, 2017 and 2021.

December 2016 was included in the list of the coldest months with an average temperature of -1.9 C.

2021 was the second wettest December on record, with 2014 the third wettest. Several Decembers have been dry, look for 2013, 2015 and 2016 at the top. A comparison of the wettest and driest Decembers speaks for itself: the ratio between December 2021 and December 2013 is 11 to 1.

An example of fluctuations in the average monthly temperature in December in Sibiu from -3 C (2016) to +4.5 C (2020).