Physical Geography

Hungary occupies part of the Pannonian Basin, which lies between the Alps, Dinaric Alps, and Carpathian Mountains, and is largely a land of plains and rolling terrain. The largest region is the Great Alföld, a plain covering most of eastern Hungary and extending into Serbia and Montenegro, Romania, and Ukraine. Nearly everywhere the Great Alföld is a flat, largely treeless area with productive soils.

West of the Danube River, in the southwest, the plain gives way to an upland often called Transdanubia. It is rolling land occasionally broken by hilly areas, largest of which is the Mecsek Hills, northwest of Pécs. Overlooking Lake Balaton are the Bakony Hills.

Low, rounded mountains—the foothills of the Carpathians—form a band across most of northeastern Hungary. Found here are the Mátra and Bükk mountains. The country's highest peak is 3,330-foot (1,015-m) Kékes, in the Mátra Mountains.

Northwestern Hungary is spanned by the Little Alföld, which is smaller and receives more rainfall than the Great Alföld but otherwise is similar.

The chief river is the Danube (Duna in Hungarian), which flows eastward along the Slovak-Hungarian border and then southward past Budapest, the capital and largest city. The second most important river is the Tisza, in the east. Both are subject to periodic flooding and in some places are bordered by poorly drained, marshy areas. Lake Balaton, on the southern flank of the Bakony Hills, is the only large lake.

Hungary's climate is transitional between the European continental and maritime climates. Winters bring cold northerly winds, snow, and low temperatures. Summers are dominated by westerly winds and vary from warm to hot. Often they bring severe droughts. In Budapest the average July temperature is about 70° F. (21° C.); the January average is 28° F. (-2° C.).

Precipitation is usually most abundant in spring and early summer. In general, total amounts of precipitation decrease from west to east and range from roughly 20 to 30 inches (510 to 760 mm).