2. Location of Hungary
Hungary is about halfway from the ocean to the inner parts of the Eurasian continent.
In the summer half-year the dominating air masses are of oceanic origin, in the winter mostly
continental ones.
4. Geographical features
Official name: Republic of Hungary
Capital: Budapest
Area:
total: 93,030 sq km
water: 690 sq km
land: 92,340 sq km
Climate: temperate; cold, cloudy, humid winters; warm summers
Location: Central Europe, northwest of Romania
Geographic
coordinates:
47 00 N, 20 00 E
Comparative
Area:
slightly smaller than Indiana
Land boundaries:
total: 2,171 km
border countries: Austria 366 km, Croatia 329 km, Romania 443 km,
Serbia and Montenegro 151 km, Slovakia 677 km, Slovenia 102 km,
Ukraine 103 km
Coastline: 0 km (landlocked)
Terrain:
mostly flat to rolling plains; hills and low mountains on the Slovakian
border
Elevation
extremes:
lowest point: Tisza River 78 m
highest point: Kekes 1,014 m
5. Climate of Hungary - general characteristics
• Hungary is situated between the 45°45'N and 48°35'N latitudes, about
halfway between the Equator and the North Pole, in the temperate climatic
zone according to the solar climatic classification.
• Its climate is very erratic.
• One of the main reasons for this is the fact that Hungary is situated in
between 3 climatic zones:
- the oceanic climate with less varying temperature and more evenly
dispersed precipitation;
- the continental climate with more extreme temperature and relatively
moderate precipitation;
- also, a Mediterranean effect with dry weather in summer, and wet one in
winter.
• For a shorter or longer period of time any of these types can become
prevailing.
• Due to these reasons great differences can occur in the weather of the
country, despite of its lower altitudes and relatively small extent.
6. The climatic regions in Hungary
The NW-SE distribution of the meteorological variables shows the effect of the
Atlantic Ocean, while the SW-NE distribution the effect of the Mediterranean Sea.
7. Carpathian basin
The other main determinant is orography.
As the country is situated in the Carpathian Basin - more than half of its surface
are plains below 200 metres, and the area above 400 metres is less than 2 percent
- primarily the effect of the Carpathians should be underlined.
8. Wind conditions of Hungary
• Hungary is in the conveyor belt of the Westerlies, due to the location of the
country - surrounded by the Alps and the Carpathians - the prevailing wind
direction is northwestern, while the southern wind has a secondary maximum.
The northwestern base flow of the general circulation is more emphasized in Eastern Transdanubia
and between the rivers Danube and Tisza, while east of the Tisza the prevailing wind is northeastern.
However, due to the different circulation patterns the wind direction is not permanent, the relative
frequency of the most frequent wind is only around 15–35% in Hungary.
Thus, in 65–85% of the time the wind does not blow from the prevailing direction.
9. • The wind speed is considerably determined by local effects.
• Apart from macro scale patterns, the wind speed depends on
the relief, the land cover and other objects (e.g. buildings,
trees, etc.).
• Based on the average wind speed, Hungary can be classified as
a moderate windy region, the annual means of wind speed are
varying between 2 and 4 m/s, but significantly different values
can also be measured due to the above-mentioned reasons.
• The wind speed has a typical intra-annual variability, the
windiest period is the first half of spring, while the lowest
wind speeds can usually be observed during the beginning of
autumn.
• On average, there are 122 windy days per year in Hungary
(i.e. when the strongest gust exceeds 10 m/s), from which 35
days are gale (i.e. the strongest gust exceeds 15 m/s).
13. The maximum and minimum values are important practical features of air temperature.
In Hungary the diurnal temperature range is the lowest in December (4–6 °C) when the
days are the shortest and the cloud cover is the thickest, while in the sunny and longer
summer days more than twice (11–13 °C) of that is common.
14.
15. Climate (Average Weather) Data
Data is presented in both metric and "English" units.
NOAA
Code
Statistic Units Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Average
0101
Temperature
Mean Value
F 27.3 32.4 41.2 51.3 60.4 65.7 68.5 67.3 60.4 50.5 40.1 31.6 49.7
0201
High Temperature
Mean Value
F 33.1 39.4 50.7 61.9 71.1 76.3 79.7 79 72.3 61.7 47.3 36.7 59.1
0301
Low Temperature
Mean Value
F 22.1 26.6 33.1 41.7 50.2 55.6 57.9 56.7 50.5 41.5 34.3 27 41.4
0615
Precipitation
Mean Monthly Value
Inches 1.5 1.2 1.4 1.7 2.4 3.3 2.7 2.5 1.6 1.3 1.8 1.8 1.9
0101
Temperature
Mean Value
C -2.6 0.2 5.1 10.7 15.8 18.7 20.3 19.6 15.8 10.3 4.5 -0.2 9.85
0201
High Temperature
Mean Value
C 0.6 4.1 10.4 16.6 21.7 24.6 26.5 26.1 22.4 16.5 8.5 2.6 15.05
0301
Low Temperature
Mean Value
C -5.5 -3.0 0.6 5.4 10.1 13.1 14.4 13.7 10.3 5.3 1.3 -2.8 5.24
0615
Precipitation
Mean Monthly Value
mm 37 30 34 42 59 80 65 61 38 31 45 44 47.17
1101
Relative Humidity
Mean Value
% 87 83 76 70 69 71 69 71 74 78 85 88 76.75
16. Temperature conditions of Hungary
• The spatial distribution of two-metre temperature is primarily influenced by
the distance from the Equator, the altitude and the distance from the seas.
• The map of annual mean temperature reflects the orography. The lowest values
appear in the higher altitudes (the Bakony Mountains, around the western border,
and in the Northern Mountains), where the mean temperature usually does not
exceed 8 °C. Values above 11 °C only occur scarcely, mostly on southern exposed
slopes.
• The spatial distribution shows a decrease from SW to NE, which is due to the
warming effect of the Mediterranean Sea and the cooling effect of the Siberian
anticyclone. Note that in the last decade the areas exceeding 11 °C increased,
particularly in the south of Hungary.
• Although the impact of orography on the temperature is obvious, an inversion is
common in winter, when the temperature increases with the altitude instead of
decreasing. Stronger inversion can cause a cold-air pool within the Carpathian
Basin, which means higher altitude areas can be warmer as they rise from the cold
air mass that fills the bottom of the basin.
17. Annual mean temperature in Hungary based
on the 1971–2000 period
The annual mean temperature in most parts of Hungary is between 10 and 11 °C.
18. Annual mean temperature of Hungary,
1901–2009
(based on homogenized and interpolated data)
In the last century the climate has warmed in Hungary, as well . We can say that the
characteristics of the Hungarian series follow the global tendencies, with a greater variability
due to being a smaller area.
19. Average annual precipitation in Hungary
based on the 1971–2000 period
The annual precipitation amount in Hungary is 500–750 mm, but there
are remarkable differences between different regions.
20. Precipitation conditions of Hungary
• The spatial distribution of the annual precipitation amount
shows double effects.
• The effects of the altitude and the distance from the
Mediterranean Sea are important, but the Atlantic ocean also
influences our climate.
• A hundred meters increase in altitude equals to about 35 mm
extra in the annual amount, while the growing distance from
the seas means a decrease.
• The wettest are the southwestern areas of the country and the
mountains, where the amount could exceed 800 mm.
• On average, the low altitude valley of the river Tisza receives
the least precipitation, the value does not reach 500 mm.
Roughly, the annual sum decreases from SW to NE.
21. Solar radiation, sunshine duration and cloud
cover of Hungary
• By global radiation we mean the sum of the direct radiation of the Sun and the
diffuse radiation coming from the sky.
• In Hungary, the southeastern parts have the highest irradiation values, the region of
Szeged reaches 4800–4900 MJ/m2, also, the global radiation exceeds 4500 MJ/m2
in large areas.
• The lowest irradiation values are around the northern mountains, here less than
4300 MJ/m2 values could occur.
22. The average monthly values of global
radiation
of Hungary, based on the 1998–2009 period
23. The average monthly values of cloud cover
of Hungary, based on the 1971–2000 period
24. The average annual sunshine duration (hours)
in Hungary based on the 1971–2000 period
In Hungary, the most sunshine with more than 2000 hours a year is common in the southern
and southeastern parts, while the least sunny regions are in the northern and northeastern
parts, and around the western borders, with less than 1800 hours.
25. The average monthly values of sunshine
duration in Hungary
based on the 1971–2000 period
In winter, the highest mountains receive one and a half times as much sunshine as the
plains, since in winter the inversion is a common phenomena (when the mountains rise
above the fog covering the lower regions).
However, in summer they have 10 percent less sunshine as the lower regions, because of
the more cloudy and wet weather.
December is with the least sunshine, while the maximum duration is in July
