The first two months of winter 2017/2018 have brought about milder than average weather. In the 10-day-long cold period between the end of February and the beginning of March, the real winter weather arrived. The winter semester preceding the growing season was extremely rainy, with precipitation nearly 130 mm above the annual average. The sunny, warm weather continued in May. The specialty of the year was that two extremely hot months followed each other. The emergence and initial phenological development of maize was extremely rapid. Monthly precipitation was close to the mean, with most falling during the middle decade of the month. July was characterised by moderate, temperate weather, free of extremes. Precipitation also fell relatively evenly over the period. The time of flowering and seed setting was about two weeks earlier than usual. The very warm period beginning at the end of July lasted until the end of August and significant rainfall did not fall until the end of August.

In the winter semester preceding the 2019 growing season, there was little rainfall – only 127 mm, which was 87 mm lower than the average. Deep layers of soils were not sufficiently saturated. May was clearly marked by cloudy, rainy, cool weather. More than average (76 mm) of precipitation fell with an even distribution. June was drier than average, with about half of the normal rainfall (32 mm). The monthly average temperature of 22.8 °C is considered extremely high. The middle decade of the month was particularly warm. The dry period, which continued at the beginning of July, was less warm. The average temperature in July (21.1 °C) has never been so low in the last 10 years. Due to heavy rainfall in the second half of the month and at the very end of the month, monthly precipitation was significantly above the annual average, with a value of 99 mm representing a positive anomaly of 33 mm. August was characterised by dry, warm weather and very little rain. The end of the month was marked by a significant positive anomaly which accelerated the maturation process.

Keywords: precipitation, temperature, years of 2018–2019, long-term experiments