An active weather pattern featured light to moderate showers (2-20 mm) in northern Europe, while locally more than 30 mm fell across the southern third of the continent.
The moisture was timely for reproductive winter wheat and rapeseed in central and northern growing areas, particularly in areas beset with spring dryness from central and northern France into Germany.
While drier conditions (less than 3 mm) lingered in southeastern England (where 90-day rainfall has averaged 50 to 60 percent of normal), well-timed showers were overspreading the United Kingdom on May 15.
Likewise, soil moisture was in good supply for recently-sown corn, soybeans, and sunflowers from Spain and southern France into Italy and the Balkans.
Nevertheless, the wet weather was too late to offer much benefit for filling to maturing winter wheat and barley in central and northern Spain, where dryness and spring heat have lowered yield prospects.