Champaign, Ill.— Soil temperatures are rising throughout Illinois in mid-April, according to Jennie Atkins, Water and Atmospheric Resources Monitoring (WARM) Program manager at the Illinois State Water Survey.

Soil temperatures in Illinois were near normal the first half of the month with an average of 50° at depths of 4 inches under bare soil, 1° above the long-term average.     

Temperatures declined slightly last week as the weather cooled but have been steadily rising since Sunday.  On April 17, temperatures averaged 59° in Illinois, an increase of 15° since April 1. The northern region is seeing slightly cooler temperatures with an average of 56°, while southern temperatures average 61° with daily highs in the low 70s.

Temperatures at 2-inch depths are slightly warmer, with an average of 53° on April 17.  Daily highs were in the low to mid 70s for most southern and central Illinois locations.

Soil moisture has remained high in April. Levels at 4 inches averaged 0.37 water fraction by volume (wfv) on April 17, which is at or above the field capacity for most of the soils monitored. Soils were wettest in the south and east.

The Illinois State Water Survey’s 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. 

The Illinois State Water Survey at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, a division of the Prairie Research Institute, is the primary agency in Illinois concerned with water and atmospheric resources.

Source: Jennie Atkins, Ph.D., 217-333-4966, jatkins@illinois.edu
Editor: Trish Barker, 217-300-2327, tlbarker@illinois.edu