Bulgaria’s spring 2025: Colder than spring 2024, but warmer than season in three previous years
Spring 2025 in Bulgaria was colder than spring 2024, but warmer than spring 2023, 2022, and 2021, the national meteorological bureau said in a regular report, posted on June 9.
The report covers meteorological spring, the three-month period from March 1 to May 31 2025, while astronomical spring began with the spring equinox on March 20, 2025 and continues until the summer solstice on June 21 2025.
The report said that spring 2025 had average seasonal temperatures around and above normal, with a deviation between minus 0.5 and plus 1.5 degrees Celsius.
In terms of precipitation, it was similar to the spring of 2024 and 2023. Seasonal precipitation amounts deviated from the norm between 53 and 155 per cent.
March 2025 was relatively warm – one of the five warmest March months since 2001, the report said.
April saw temperatures around and below normal and was colder than April 2024, but warmer than April 2023.
May was relatively cold, colder than May 2024, but warmer than May 2023. The highest measured temperature was 32.2 degrees on May 5 in Rousse.
The lowest minimum temperature in a settlement was minus 10.5 degrees in Chepelare, Smolyan district, on April 9, and the lowest minimum temperature was measured on Musala Peak on March 19 – minus 19.1 degrees.
In Bulgaria’s capital city Sofia, the highest measured temperature was 27.1 degrees on March 15, and the lowest, minus 5.4 degrees on March 20.
The month of March 2025 saw precipitation around the norm and was similar to the months of March in 2023 and 2024.
April also has precipitation around the norm within wide limits. There was less precipitation than the months of April since 2021.
May had precipitation around or above the norm and was the wettest May since 2017. The highest measured 24-hour rainfall was 108.5 mm (l/sq m) in the village of Lehchevo, Montana region, on April 27.
High temperatures in early spring, with maximums up to and above 25 degrees, accelerated the development of agricultural crops.
During the second 10-day period of April, cold weather, with negative minimum temperatures and snowfall, caused irreparable damage to fruit trees and rapeseed crops that had entered the flowering phase.
In the Sofia Plain, in the southwestern regions and in many places in Eastern Bulgaria, damage to apricot, cherry and plum trees added up to 80 to 90 per cent. In parts of northern Bulgaria, damage to walnut inflorescences was up to 90 per cent.
In the final days of April, frosts formed in the high fields and in many places in the eastern regions, causing additional damage to fruit trees.
After the high temperatures at the beginning of May, at the end of the first 10 days, thermal conditions deteriorated. Intense rainfall and hailstorms caused serious damage to agricultural crops. In places in southern Bulgaria (Haskovo, Harmanli, Assenovgrad), strong winds and hail completely destroyed crops with spring and vegetable crops.
The hailstorms that fell in the third 10-day period of May in the districts of Pleven, Haskovo, Sliven, Stara Zagora, Nova Zagora and Yambol destroyed spring and vegetable crops and caused damage to vineyards and fruit orchards.
During most of spring 2025, river levels in the Danube catchment basin remained unchanged or rose briefly as a result of rainfall and partial snowmelt (in March). Water levels of most of the rivers were below the monthly norms.
(Photo: Mike Peel(www.mikepeel.net) via Wikimedia Commons)
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