Still 17 Inches of Frost in the Soil

This morning I checked the official weather records at the Southern Research and Outreach Center at Waseca. I was surprised to see that as of Monday there was still 17 inches of frost in the soil. A week before the frost depth was 18 inches. I have always heard that rain has a tendency to take the frost out of the ground. In that week we received 1.8 inches of rain.

Late last week when I was at the North American Farm and Power Show I talked with many farmers who said the gravel roads were almost impassable even with a 4-wheel drive pick-up. I am quite certain the frost depth was much deeper on a plowed gravel road compared the weather station in the middle of a field that had a lot of snow cover.

The frost should move out quickly now with warmer weather and a little sunshine. Plus the days are getting noticeably longer now too. The soil temperature at the two, four and 8 inch depths are now at 31 degrees.