A significant impact of the cold winter season has been an increase in underground water line breaks. These occur when freezing temperatures reach the depth that water pipes are buried. The featured chart displays a time series of average daily subsurface temperatures from the Tipton DOT RWIS site. This site has a probe taking a profile temperature down to 70 inches deep at a six inch interval. Sub-freezing temperatures are indicated down to five feet! The caveat with these readings is that the profile is below a pavement surface, which tends to have more sand / rock than soil. This permits more rapid cooling than underneath a grassy surface. The plot nicely depicts the temporal lag it takes for heat to be lost and temperatures cool, the further down the profile you go.

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Tags:   rwis   frost