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CFAES Ag Weather System 2021 Near-Surface Air and Soil Temperatures/Moisture

Figure 1: Daily average air temperature (dashed red), two-inch (green) and four-inch (blue) soil temperatures for spring 2021. Current daily average soil temperatures are noted for each location. Soil type and location of measurements (under sod or bare soil) are provided in the lower right corner of each panel. A map of all locations is in the bottom right.  Data provided by The College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences (CFAES) Agricultural Research Stations located throughout the state. All sites are reported on Figure 1 as a daily average.

A very unusual late season snowfall and three nights near or below freezing led to a significant drop in daily average soil temperatures by mid-week last week (Fig. 1). Most locations fell below 50°F with our northeast site in Ashtabula County dropping below 40°F. Temperatures recovered some throughout the weekend, as two- and four-inch soil temperatures are now at or slightly cooler than this time last week, running in the upper 40s to low 50s. This week will feature a significant warm up for the first half of the week, with maximum air temperatures reaching the upper 70s to low 80s for much of Ohio on Tuesday. Slightly cooler temperatures will occur for Wednesday and Thursday with rain expected, then chillier air temperatures, in the 50s and 60s, along with some morning patchy frost are possible for the weekend

A solid swath of 3-6” of snow fell with last week’s storm along with some light to moderate rain on Saturday. Still, much of the state fell short of typical weekly averages for this time of year. Figure 2 (left) shows that precipitation was generally 0.50” or less across most of the state. Overall, Ohio remains dry, especially across our northern counties, even to depths of 40 cm (Fig. 2-right). The U.S. Drought Monitor currently shows approximately 46% of the state is at least abnormally dry, with 22% in Moderate Drought conditions.   

Figure 2: (Left) Precipitation estimates for the last 7 days ending on 4/25/2021. Figure provided by the Midwestern Regional Climate Center (https://www.mrcc.illinois.edu). (Right) 0-40 cm Soil Moisture Percentile as of 4/26/2021 according to NASA’s SPORT-LIS (https://weather.msfc.nasa.gov/sport/modeling/lis.html).

For more complete weather records for CFAES research stations, including temperature, precipitation, growing degree days, and other useful weather observations, please visit https://www.oardc.ohio-state.edu/weather1/.

Crop Observation and Recommendation Network

C.O.R.N. Newsletter is a summary of crop observations, related information, and appropriate recommendations for Ohio crop producers and industry. C.O.R.N. Newsletter is produced by the Ohio State University Extension Agronomy Team, state specialists at The Ohio State University and the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center (OARDC). C.O.R.N. Newsletter questions are directed to Extension and OARDC state specialists and associates at Ohio State.