In summer 1992 through spring 1994, amphibian abundance and breeding was studied in the pristine temperate forests, typical of central European lowlands. The years 1991, 1992, and 1993 were among the driest in the recent decades, with the spring-summer precipitation 35% lower than the long-term average. In the primeval forests of Białowieża National Park, common frogs Rana temporaria spawned in small (on average, 0.2 ha) ponds (postglacial melt-out hollows) devoid of wood cover and characterised by water pH 5.1-6.0 (as measured in April). Breeding success of frogs, monitored qualitatively in 1993, was rather poor due to pond desiccation. The capture of amphibians on forest grids revealed that densities and seasonal dynamics differed between wet and drier deciduous forests. No amphibians were captured in the mixed coniferous forests during the study. In the wet ash-alder forests, on average, 39 amphibians ha-1 were recorded in late April, 12 ind ha-1 in summer, and 195–222 ind hasup-1 in autumn (September). In those forests, 90% of captured amphibians were common frogs, 6% common toads Bufo bufo, and 4% moor frogs R. arvalis. In the drier oak-lime-hornbeam forests, amphibians appeared in May, and increased in numbers towards summer (19–24 ind ha-1) and autumn (45–71 ind ha-1). Of all amphibians caught in those forests, 43% were common frogs, 38% common toads, and 19% were moor frogs. A majority of amphibians captured in autumn were young of the year. By mid-October, all amphibians had left the forest for their hibernation sites. Comparison of our data collected in very dry years with other available data from Bia∏owie ̋a Primeval Forest (various years between 1955 and 1998) revealed that summer indices of amphibian abundance were strongly positively correlated with rainfall in April-June of the census year and the previous year.