Climate Change Overview

Country Summary

This page presents high-level information for Hungary's climate zones and its seasonal cycle for mean temperature and precipitation for the latest climatology, 1991-2020. Climate zone classifications are derived from the Köppen-Geiger climate classification system, which divides climates into five main climate groups divided based on seasonal precipitation and temperature patterns. The five main groups are A (tropical), B (dry), C (temperate), D (continental), and E (polar). All climates except for those in the E group are assigned a seasonal precipitation sub-group (second letter).  Climate classifications are identified by hovering your mouse over the legend. A narrative overview of Hungary's country context and climate is provided following the visualizations.

Hungary is located in Central Europe; the neighboring countries are Austria, Croatia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine. Geographically Hungary is mostly flat terrain, with some hills and low mountains. The area of the country is 93,033 km2, of which 57.4% is agricultural area (46.5% arable land, 2,5% garden, orchard and vineyard, 8.4% grassland), 20.9% forest, 0.9% reed and fish-pond, and 20.7% is uncultivated land area. Danube and Tisza are the two main rivers of the country; the largest lake is Lake Balaton. Hungary's population was 9.7 million as of 2020, and the capital city of Budapest has approximately 1.7 million inhabitants. The density of population was 105.4 inhabitants/km2. Other major cities are Debrecen, Miskolc, Pécs, Szeged, Győr with around 100-200 thousand inhabitants. 

Hungary is a market economy; it has a highly internationalized and export-oriented business sector and a stable macroeconomic situation. Industry is the most significant sector of the Hungarian national economy, its share in the GDP was 26% in 2016. Due to climate characteristics, the primary foreseen impact of climate change is precipitation change, floods and drought. In Hungary, agriculture is the sector which is most vulnerable to the climate change.