Cold and Wet Pushing Down Soil Temperatures

Soil temps diving

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The latest Indiana corn planting progress report has the state at 1 percent for the week just ended. That equals the pace of last year but trails the 5-year average of 13%. Now, with cooler temperatures moving in and more rain coming, HAT meteorologist Ryan Martin says more delays are coming as soil temperatures dive.

“We’ve just started this cool air blast. It’s going to be lasting most of the rest of the week and I’m hearing already that we’ve taken as much as ten degrees off of our 4″ soil temperatures from where they were last Saturday before the rain up until now. That’s not all due to cold air. You put some cold rain or raindrops in and you’re definitely taking temperatures off there and now we have the cold air coming in on top. I think we can probably go another 5 to 7 degrees down.”

According to a soil forecast map he uses, Martin says the soils in the northern third of Indiana could get down to the lower 40’s.

“I guess I wouldn’t rule out an upper 30 degree reading maybe early Friday morning, with actual air temperatures in the 20’s, but I think we’re going to take those soil temperatures back into the low 40’s. The southern half of the state probably around 44-46 degrees.”

But there is good news. Solar radiation is increasing every day.

“You get the sun angle to increase all the way through June, so yes air temperature is one thing, but as long as we have full sunshine we should see a decent rebound once this coldest part of the air mass leaves. We’re expecting that to happen probably Friday.”

RyanMartinpngBut then there is the issue of rain. Martin’s models see another round coming in this weekend.

“Saturday into Sunday I think we can see .2-.8 of an inch of moisture there. I also think we have another wave that comes in Tuesday of next week that could add to it. Models are in disagreement over it. I think it’s coming so I think we’re going to be hard pressed to turn many wheels for maybe another week to ten days

So this year yet again farmers will have to practice patience.

Visit our Ag Weather Center for the commodity weather forecast.

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