speaking of wet weather

last June we had over 11 inches of rain and so far 2 inches. My soil moisture station indicates:

Soil Moisture 1 [cb] 7 4 inches
Soil Moisture 2 [cb] 7 12 inches
Soil Moisture 3 [cb] 2 24 inches
Soil Moisture 4 [cb] 1 36 inches

considering that the scale goes from 0 which is saturated to 200 which is dry… this is not the best…
I moved sensors 3 and 4 to the center of the garden a month ago and the readings haven’t changed much. :(, considering all the rain we have had, I have been checking Saylorville dam levels and so far they are about 50 feet below flood stage last year. so I am hoping that continues.

Guessing that if at 3 feet it is saturated, it must be that way

My garden is real muddy and the weeds are dancing around. the rabbits are happy and I really need to be out there weeding, but sinking out of sight just isn’t in my plan.

The soil moisture readings come from Weather Display… I set up a custom report and it not only sends to my computer upstairs, but to my Blackberry which I think is extra cool.

Supposed to rain Wednesday again. I have to remove a winter killed peach tree and some branches plus clean out the basement … wife had me order one of those roll offs to put the stuff in … I figure goofing off isn’t going to happen…

I put my soil moisture and temp sensors in last September and it’s really interesting to watch how some of the values respond. Things are finally drying out here after a very wet spring. Year to date rainfall is now more than 25 inches. My soil moisture readings are:

Soil Moisture at 4 inches = 25
Soil Moisture at 12 inches = 5
Soil Moisture at 24 inches = 1
Soil Moisture at 36 inches = 1

That 4 inch reading had made it up to around 62 before rain this morning. Interesting to see how that changes after a rain.


SoilMoist1History.gif

here is the updated gif from my weather sensors… more rain is forecasted for next week, although on Friday it is supposed to be in the upper 80s. That should be humid.

Really surprised your soil temps are that high already…

the soil does warm up very well… we had some hot days… a very few, I think the heat is latent heat, and the wet soil is insulating it. kind of like those geothermal wells that have been installed for cooling and heating of buildings. One of the local high schools, Roosevelt, is having the wells installed before remodeling. I think quite a few schools here in town will have that done. North should be interesting because it was built on swampy ground near the river. It is the one that was in the paper, flooded last June.

TV weather guy here keeps mentioning our dewpoints in the mid 70’s. I will take plain hot over this muggy air anytime…

right now the temp is 67 and dp 59, humid 76… not the best… damp and chilly. Oh we are going to have upper 80s on Friday and that is going to be miserable… we have a funeral in the family on Friday morning… and it is going to be hard weather and emotions. My brother in law passed at 44 from ALS.

We welcome the warm day, but wish it was on a better note. Saturday they predict 87 so I am guessing that we will have the warm up, a lot of evaporation and then more rain.

My 4 inch soil temp is currently at 70

Welcome to the midwest Dan. 8)

Sorry for your lose Aard.

Hydro, we are at 25.5 inches. Last year at this time we had 31.05 inches.

Just west of us in Southern Il. some places are approaching 40 inches for the year already.

and you may keep the rain…

Last year the building I teach in flooded http://www.iowaflood.com/5293/north-high-school-under-water-in-des-moines.html

When I left they were replacing the gym floor, had removed all the wood and were jack hammering so they could but in a moisture barrier above the tunnels under the floor and then were to replace the wood. 2nd flood for that school. It was dusty even with everything covered during finals. Anyway, when we get back, if the rain holds off and no more flooding we should be fine. Next year… summer 2010 the army corps are to replace the levee I am not holding my breath.

We had every wild thing roaming the building looking for dry land when the levee broke, the raccoons ate all the biology tropical fish and they tell me there was a buck in the gym pooping. :wink: