Strategic Communications and Marketing News Bureau

Soil temperatures and moisture levels declining in early March

Cooler, drier weather has led to declining soil temperatures and moisture levels, according to Jennie Atkins, Water and Atmospheric Resources Monitoring Program manager at the Illinois State Water Survey, part of the Prairie Research Institute at Illinois.

The first half of March has been cooler and drier than normal. Air temperatures have declined overall from a state average of 45.3 degrees on March 1 to 36.8 degrees on March 14. Soil temperatures have also followed this trend. Temperatures at depths of 4 inches under bare soil averaged 38.4 degrees on March 14, 8.5 degrees cooler than on March 1 and 1.3 degrees below the long-term average.

Soils throughout the state have thawed, with temperatures ranging from daily highs in the 40s and 50s to lows in the 30s.

Moisture levels have also been declining as soils dry after February’s record-breaking rain. Soil moisture at 4 inches averaged 0.34 water fraction by volume on March 14, a decrease of 12 percent from the beginning of the month. However, despite the drying, several stations are still reporting moisture levels near or above the field capacity. 

The WARM Program collects hourly and daily weather and soil information at 19 stations across the state. Daily and monthly summaries can be found at the WARM website and in the Illinois Water and Climate Summary.

Read Next

Life sciences Photo of Michael Ward standing in tall grass on a riverbank.

How are migrating wild birds affected by H5N1 infection in the U.S.?

Each spring, roughly 3.5 billion wild birds migrate from their warm winter havens to their breeding grounds across North America, eating insects, distributing plant seeds and providing a variety of other ecosystem services to stopping sites along the way. Some also carry diseases like avian influenza, a worry for agricultural, environmental and public health authorities. […]

Announcements Marcelo Garcia, professor of civil and environmental engineering at The Grainger College of Engineering.

Illinois faculty member elected to National Academy of Engineering

Champaign, Ill. — Marcelo Garcia, a professor of civil and environmental engineering in The Grainger College of Engineering, has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering.

Social sciences Male and female student embracing on the quad with flowering redbud tree and the ACES library in the background. Photo by Michelle Hassel

Dating is not broken, but the trajectories of relationships have changed

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — According to some popular culture writers and online posts by discouraged singles lamenting their inability to find romantic partners, dating is “broken,” fractured by the social isolation created by technology, pandemic lockdowns and potential partners’ unrealistic expectations. Yet two studies of college students conducted a decade apart found that their ideas about […]

Strategic Communications and Marketing News Bureau

507 E. Green St
MC-426
Champaign, IL 61820

Email: stratcom@illinois.edu

Phone (217) 333-5010