Air temperatures were very cold for Halloween with highs only in the 30s and even some light snow over far eastern Iowa. The warmth of last week is a distant memory and with the calendar turning to November, full scale winter is not far off! Today's featured chart looks at what is happening with soil temperatures given the rapid change in air temperature. The chart shows hourly soil temperature data for an ISU Soil Moisture station just west of Ames. Temperature readings are taken at a number of depths from 14 to 52 inches deep. The warmer air temperatures last week were allowing soil temperatures to slowly warm as well, but you can see the dramatic reversal as air temperatures started to nose dive on Saturday. It took about 2-3 days for the 52 inch depth to start cooling as the soil has thermal inertia to overcome.

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