Soil Temperature Climatology for Illinois, Illinois State Climatologist Office, Illinois State Water Survey, U of I

Soil Temperature Climatology for Illinois

Jim Angel, state climatologist

Soil temperatures are important for a variety of agricultural and horticultural activities. Long-term averages have been calculated from a network of sites established in the 1990s by the Illinois State Water Survey, called the Water and Atmospheric Resource Monitoring (WARM) program. These are daily averages calculated from all available data at each station for soil temperatures at 4 and 8 inches. The measurements are made under grass. Soil temperatures under other ground covers or under bare ground will vary somewhat from those shown here.

More information on soil temperatures, including current conditions can be found on the WARM site.

Table 1. Average soil temperature at 4 and 8 inches at each site.
	4-Inch Depth	8-Inch Depth
Belleville	Plot	Plot
Bondville	Plot	Plot
Brownstown	Plot	Plot
Carbondale	Plot	Plot
Champaign	Plot	Plot
De Kalb	Plot	Plot
Dixon Springs	Plot	Plot
Fairfield	Plot	Plot
Freeport	Plot	Plot
Kilbourne	Plot	Plot
Monmouth	Plot	Plot
Olney	Plot	Plot
Peoria	Plot	Plot
Peoria Wildlife Park	Plot	Plot
Perry	Plot	Plot
Rend Lake	Plot	Plot
St. Charles	Plot	Plot
Springfield	Plot	Plot
Stelle	Plot	Plot