🇭🇺Hungary

Spanning 45°44′–48°35′N, Hungary is a landlocked Central European country of approximately 93,030 km² lying almost entirely within the Pannonian Basin. The Danube River bisects the nation into the Transdanubian rolling hills to the west and the vast Great Hungarian Plain, Alföld, to the east. The highest peak is Kékes at 1,014 m in the Mátra range.

The climate is uniformly humid continental Dfb across most of the country, with a slight oceanic Cfb tendency in the wetter west near Sopron and Zalaegerszeg, and a more continental, drier character on the Great Plain around Debrecen and Szeged, approaching the Pontic-Caspian steppe.

Budapest averages 0°C in January and 22°C in July with 530 mm of rainfall, peaking in late spring–summer thunderstorms. Debrecen on the Great Plain records −2°C in January and 21°C in July with 530 mm. Pécs in the warmer south averages 1°C in January and 22°C in July with 660 mm. Szeged in the southeast logs 0°C in January and 23°C in July with 510 mm—Hungary's hottest spot in summer.

Sopron on the Austrian border sees 0°C in January and 21°C in July with 700 mm. The Mátra and Bükk uplands experience January means near −5°C with 800–900 mm of precipitation. The all-time temperature range is approximately −35.0°C, recorded at Miskolc in February 1985, to 41.9°C at Kiskunhalas in July 2007.

Hungary has experienced multiple significant weather events in recent decades. The 2010 Tisza and Danube floods caused widespread damage across the country. The Great Plain has undergone recurrent severe summer droughts in 2003, 2007, 2012, and 2022, which reduced maize and sunflower crop yields. An intense heatwave occurred in August 2007, with record temperatures recorded in southern regions.

Additionally, summer thunderstorms have increased in frequency and intensity, often producing hail, and late-spring frosts have caused growing damage to vineyard crops. These events reflect shifts in precipitation patterns and temperature variability.

Our archive covers 16 Hungarian cities with daily ERA5 reanalysis data going back to 1940. The warmest July averages occur in Szeged, around 28.2°C, while Miskolc records the coldest January nights near −4.8°C. Comparing the last decade against the 1940–1970 baseline, mean temperatures across these cities have risen by about 1.7°C.