Ground/Soil conditions under the snow question.

[Allen]

I was wondering if you all could help me get an understanding for just how hard frozen the ground is in your area this year compared to your historical observations?

In particular, the kinds of observations that are of use to me are:
1. Is there a layer of ice on top of the ground under virgin snowpack?
2. Frost thickness, if you've been so unlucky as to have had to dig through it.
3. When pushing snow, is it easy to scrape up dirt as well, or is your bucket or blade not able to create lawn-wrecking divots this year?
4. And, of course, general location is always a help!

Thanks guys!

Allen

 

[Wirehair]

When pushing snow on Fox Island, I am able to create yard divots quite easily. We have fresh snow pack directly on top of turf. Placed a light pole at our farm SE of Bismarck about 3 weeks ago and broke thru frost @ about 18" When moving snow out there, it is easy to grab some turf as well.

 

[Davy Crockett]

No layer of ice in my neck of the woods of the Turtle Mountains but I remember seeing a lot of areas got hit with rain after freeze up. I'd guess 40 inches of snow on dry frozen ground , I occasionally get some dry dirt or grass shavings mixed in if I am scraping the ground but under that is like a rock. Snow has settled and compacted so it's heavy.

 

[Kurtr]

mobridge frost is getting pretty deep 4 plus feet.

I know moving snow we can scrape gravel and tear up lawns but i guess you need to specify what kind of equipment as our 950 k does alot more damage than the skid steer

 

[gone_fishing]

NDAWN posts soil temps from readings around the state.

https://ndawn.ndsu.nodak.edu/deep-soil-temperatures.html

 

[Lycanthrope]

Why doesnt Bismarck have a DEEP PROBE? Such BS.... Im glad we got some snow before all this cold, else a lot of my plants would be SOL.

 

[Allen]

Wirehair, interesting...I live east of Lincoln and I can't make a divot this year if I tried. Even bent the hell out of a 3-point pin yesterday trying to move some virgin snow with the blade on the back of my tractor. On the sand of Fox Island, can't say I'm surprised you can do some lawn damage out there. The official NWS frost depth gauge by the airport was down to 39 inches a few days ago. I guess that shows the variability of Mother Nature, and why I appreciate all the reports!

Kurt, yeah...if a person goes big enough they can dig up dirt. I'm thinking more along the lines of modest equipment like the skidsteer and sub-50 HP tractors.

Gone-Fishing, yep...I'm aware of them. Problem is they only really give us temperatures. They have a few paired up with soil moisture probes and it's really the combo plate of temp and moisture that I'm interested in. I'd love to see more of them in the western part of the state.

 

[Auggie]

Check NDAWN. Under the Weather Data tab there are soil temps.
https://ndawn.ndsu.nodak.edu

 

[TWN]

McKenzie county, Ice right on top of the soil, fortunately have not had to dig to know frost depth. Ground is rock hard, plowed some bare spots in stubble last weekend for the pheasants and never scratched dirt.

 

[Fisherman25]

South of Minot 7 miles. Light layer of ice under the snow. I can pretty much angle the tractor bucket however I want and it won’t take much soil at all. It’s pretty Rock hard considering how dry we were last summer. I’d guess an average of 24” snow pack.

 

[Allen]

Great info guys!