English: Farm fields and forested mountains fill the heartland of Romania, a country situated on the Black Sea in Southeastern Europe. Nestled between Ukraine, Moldova, Bulgaria, Serbia, and Hungary, Romania is home to the horse-shoe-shaped arc of the Carpathian Mountains which partially enclose the richly agricultural Transylvanian Depression. The ridges that form southern arc of the Carpathians are more famously known as the Transylvanian Alps—the home of Vlad “The Impaler”, who was the historical basis of the Dracula myth.

August is typically the warmest month in Romania, and also the time when many crops, including wheat, corn, and sunflower, ripen for harvest. Like much of Europe, Romania has suffered several heat waves in both July and August 2022. Temperatures spiked to 103˚F (39.4˚C) in Bucharest on July 24 while the town of Sinai, a mountain resort sitting about 2,800 feet above sea level, hit 101˚F (38.3˚C) on July 24. Still sitting under a heat dome, Romania is currently experiencing another heat wave, with temperatures expected to remain at or above 90˚F (32.2˚F) across much of the country through the end of the month.

The high heat has brought severe drought to much of Romania, with reports of low water levels in many lakes and rivers, including the lake of Movila Miresei (Bride’s Mound), a saline, shallow lake in the eastern part of the country, which became little more than a salt-encrusted flat by August. The extended heat waves and prolonged drought have hit many crops hard. On August 24, government reports estimated that 420,380 hectares of crops had been damaged to date. The Agriculture Ministry has estimated that wheat harvest will be 18 percent smaller this year than last, but that the total wheat harvest should meet domestic needs and still permit some exports. The sunflower and corn harvests are estimated to be reduced 3 percent and 27 percent from last year, respectively.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board NASA’s Terra satellite acquired a true-color image of the heart of Romania sweltering in summer heat on August 26, 2022. While the forested mountains remain dark green, with no visible sign of heat stress, the Western Plain, Western Hills, and the Romanian Plain (located in the south and east) all carry a heavy tint of tan, a sign of dry vegetation and/or open land, all of which are common in drought. Even the Transylvanian Plain, which remains predominantly green, shows heat stress, with patches of tan visible scattered throughout.