It is not easy to find a "bright side" of temperatures approaching 30 degrees below zero. You would assume that one may be some insects in the topsoil would be killed with these really low temperatures that are in the forecast for this weekend? Many of them would likely be killed if the actual temperature at the top of the soil and a couple inches into the soil profile was at 30 degrees below zero! However, the soil temperature is actually about 55 degrees warmer than that!
The actual temperature at the 2 inch depth on February 10 from the weather station at the Southern Research and Outreach Center at Waseca was 28 degrees. At the 4 inch depth the temperature was 29 degrees. With 8 inches of snow cover the temperature at the soil surface is likely close to 28 degrees too. The frost depth is only 9 inches deep as of February 8 when the last reading was taken. This really shows just how good snow is at insulating the soil!