Soil temperatures are closely watched this time of year to help with agricultural and gardening activities. The featured chart presents the daily range in four inch depth soil temperature from the ISU Horticulture Farm just north of Ames. The chart shows the daily range (bar) and average value (starred). The chart begins with a frozen soil condition and shows the nice warm-up that happened two weeks ago. This warm up was proceeded by cooler weather and so temperatures dropped back down. The pattern shown on this chart is typical of April in Iowa. Periods whereby the top soil is warm enough for planting most crops is limited during early April and often any warm periods are followed by colder periods.

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Tags:   soil