Soil Temperatures

All Kansas Mesonet stations measure soil temperature at a minimum of two depths. This provides insight into what is going on below the surface and is vital for agriculture. Data has been recorded at the 13 original KSRE stations since the mid-1980s. At that time, soil temperatures were measured under bare soil at 2 and 4 inches. The Mesonet started recording data in 2007 at additional depths and with all sensors under sod, but it wasn't until 2013 that we standardized and started to fully maintain our soil temperature sensors. Soil temperatures since 2013 are available on our historical data page.

Depths and Location

sensors are set at 2 and 4 inches

Influencing Factors

Soil temperatures are highly dependent on several variables that can have local influences on the measured values and can create biases in the data. The Kansas Mesonet strives to limit these factors and make individual station data as representative of the surrounding region as possible.

Using the Data

For a full explanation of how to use the page, look here.

How might you benefit from Kansas Mesonet soil temperature data? Here are a few examples: