The city in Romania where spring and autumn are temperatures as in Greece – records, contrasts and tropical air in Bărăgan

Călărași, a city from the Bărăganului Plain, is a pole of the heat in the spring and autumn. The highest March temperatures in the last decades, but also from November in Romania, were measured at the weather station at an altitude of only 20 meters. Why is it so hot and what are the records?

A “capital” of heat records

The absolute maxim for November in Romania, +30.5 C in 1926, was measured in Calarasi, in 1926. The city had no 20,000 inhabitants. At a single weather station, a temperature of over 30 C was also measured in Romania in the penultimate month of the year: Botosani, +30.2 C, also in 1926. In Piatra Neamț were +30 C. About November records you can read here.

The highest March temperatures of the last half century, in Romania were also registered in Calarasi, in the last two years (+30 C last year and +28.8 C this year), and the highest temperature of November in the last decades in Romania was also in Calarasi: +28.9 C in 2021.

At the beginning of May 2003 they were +37.5 C, and in September 1946 they were +38.2 C, also in the city located on the edge of the Plain, near the Danube Balta. However, the famous Bărăgan does not deny: in February 2025 there were several days with frost, including one in which the temperature dropped to -20,9 C.

Even though spring and autumn are getting hotter, there can be extreme episodes in Calarasi: snow layer on April 14, frost on May 2 or short snow after half of April. The earliest autumn frost was on September 24, and at the latest on November 30. In the hottest spring the temperature does not drop below 0 degrees after March 3-4.

How high can the maximum temperatures be in Calarasi Spring and Autumn

March: +30.8 C.

April: +34 C.

May: +37.5 C.

September: +38.2 C.

October: +36.7 C.

November: +30.5 C.

In the city of the Danube there are also big differences between the night and the day, the average passes 10 degrees in the spring and autumn, but there were also differences of 23 degrees between the morning and after lunch temperature, and this happens especially in the hottest days of May and September (14 degrees at night, 37 C day).

Călărași – Danube, Combined, Fish and football

The city that now has 58,000 inhabitants was known during communism for the port and for the steel combination. In the last ten years the population has decreased by 7,000 inhabitants, and the maximum was in 1992: 77,000 inhabitants. In 24 years, the population of the city had doubled (1968-1992), but then decreased strongly.

During the communist period, the city was presented in the various tour guides as a place with a flowering industry and with “modern blocks” of housing, in which the constructions started in 1961. “From a fair with small craft workshops, it became a city with significant industrial units”, it was written in the book “Romania from A to Z”.

Calarasi is also known for the Danube football team, which in the last decade has had a presence in Liga 1 and two presence in the quarters of the Romanian Cup.

The locality took its name in 1700, from “Călărașii Ştafetari”, in the time of Constantin Brâncovanu, who set up a garrison. These were horseback riding messengers carrying letters, royal commandments or other important messages between different localities. The term “pole” comes from the way they sent the messages: the riders changed the horses to certain stop points, to ensure the highest speed.

For 25 years, the city called Știrbei. The locality received the rank of fair in 1734 and the city one in 1833,

In Calarasi was born (in 1933) the actor Stefan Bănică (senior).

Călărași in a few climatic records

-Absolute minimum temperature: -30 C in January 1938

– Absolute maximum temperature: +42.3 C in July 2000

-The coldest spring month: March 1907, an average of -0.6 C

– The hottest spring month: May 1923, average of +20.5 C

-The lowest spring temperature: -17.5 C in March 1987

-The lowest autumn temperature: -16 C in November 1975

– The difference between the most dry and the rainy spring: 45 l/sqm vs 244 l/sqm multiannual average is 125 l/sqm

– The difference between the most drought and the rainy autumn: 13 l/sqm vs 315 l/sqm multiannual average 118 l/sqm

Spring day with most rains: 84 l/sqm on May 25, 1967

Autumn day with most rains: 80.8 l/sqm on October 1, 2013

Why is the weather like that in Calarasi

Why are such high and extreme climatic temperatures? Călărașiul is located in a plain area, far from the moderator influences of the sea or mountains, so that the area is not protected by the arrival of the east air masses (from Russia) or south (from the Balkans and Africa).

Thus, in winter, waves of cold Siberian air can come, and spring and autumn can become tropical air masses. Around the city there are no places that exceed an altitude of 30 meters.

Bărăganului Plain has a soil that warms up and cools quickly. On sunny and autumn sunny days, dry soil can amplify temperatures, and nights can be cold due to rapid heat loss.

Bărăganul is famous for his winds, which can intensify the cold sensation in cold days and contribute to heat waves by transporting hot air.