Zionsville, Indiana
Zionsville soil temperature
How warm the ground is today about two inches (6 cm) down, the seedbed gardeners plant into, shown against the year’s normal range, with a day-by-day table and the week ahead.
Soil right now in Zionsville
Friday, July 3, 2026Modeled for the center of town, not a probe in your yard. A sunny raised bed runs warmer, a shaded or clay spot cooler.
How the soil is trending
The forecast week ahead and the days behind, each compared with today’s reading.
| When | Low | Soil (2 in) | High | vs. today |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Today Fri, Jul 3 · forecast | 75°F | 81°F | 87°F | — |
| Tomorrow Sat, Jul 4 · forecast | 75°F | 80°F | 86°F | −2°F |
| In 3 days Mon, Jul 6 · forecast | 69°F | 75°F | 82°F | −6°F |
| In a week Fri, Jul 10 | — | — | — | — |
| When | Low | Soil (2 in) | High | vs. today |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Today Fri, Jul 3 · forecast | 75°F | 81°F | 87°F | — |
| Yesterday Thu, Jul 2 · forecast | 74°F | 81°F | 88°F | −1°F |
| A week ago Fri, Jun 26 | 66°F | 69°F | 73°F | −12°F |
| A month ago Wed, Jun 3 | 59°F | 75°F | 92°F | −6°F |
| Three months ago Fri, Apr 3 | 60°F | 64°F | 70°F | −17°F |
| A year ago Thu, Jul 3 | 70°F | 79°F | 89°F | −3°F |
2026 soil temperature
Brick line: this year’s reading. Green band: the typical range per date over 1991–2020. Dashed end: the past few days and week-ahead forecast. Hover or drag to read any day.
The year so far
Turning points of the 2026 soil year: seasonal lows and highs, and the spring dates the ground first crossed the planting thresholds.
When the soil is warm enough to plant
Read against the seedbed (~2 in) reading above. “Plant at” is the practical floor; “best” is the optimum germination range.
| Crop | Plant at | Best | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Peas | 40°F | 40–75°F | Germinates from 40°F; hardy, weeks before the last frost. |
| Lettuce | 40°F | 40–80°F | Germinates as low as 35°F; semi-hardy. |
| Spinach | 45°F | 45–75°F | Germinates as low as 35°F; hardy. |
| Potatoes | 45°F | — | Seed pieces; hardy. |
| Onions | 50°F | 50–95°F | Sets or seed; hardy. |
| Sweet corn | 60°F | 70–86°F | Floor ~50°F, but wait for 60°F to avoid seed rot. |
| Beans | 60°F | 60–85°F | Tender; plant after the last frost. |
| Tomatoes | 60°F | 60–85°F | Seed floor 50°F; set transplants out when nights hold 60–65°F. |
| Peppers | 60°F | 65–95°F | Very tender. |
| Cucumbers, squash & melons | 60°F | 70–95°F | Very tender. |
Lawn timing
| Crabgrass pre-emergent | Put it down before the soil hits the upper 50s°F. Crabgrass germinates at 57–64°F an inch down (Purdue), usually early-to-mid April here. This page’s 2-inch reading runs cooler than that 1-inch number, so go by the calendar and forsythia bloom rather than waiting on it, or you’ll be late. |
|---|---|
| Preventive grub control | Calendar, not soil temp: early-to-mid July, around egg hatch (Purdue E-271); water in about ½ inch. |
| Fall lawn seeding | Best late August through mid-September, when the soil is still upper 60s to mid-70s°F for fast germination, with enough warm weeks to root before the late-October frost. By October it’s in the 50s with little time to establish. |
Sources: germination, Purdue Extension HO-186-W; crabgrass, Purdue Turfgrass Science; grubs, Purdue E-271; zone, 2023 USDA map; frost dates, NWS Indianapolis normals.
| Date | Low | Soil (2 in) | High | Change | vs. normal |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tue 1 | 54°F | 58°F | 65°F | 0°F | +8°F |
| Wed 2 | 47°F | 55°F | 64°F | −3°F | +5°F |
| Thu 3 | 50°F | 57°F | 65°F | +2°F | +9°F |
| Fri 4 | 55°F | 61°F | 67°F | +4°F | +12°F |
| Sat 5 | 57°F | 61°F | 63°F | 0°F | +12°F |
| Sun 6 | 50°F | 55°F | 62°F | −6°F | +8°F |
| Mon 7 | 49°F | 53°F | 59°F | −2°F | +6°F |
| Tue 8 | 46°F | 51°F | 57°F | −2°F | +4°F |
| Wed 9 | 45°F | 53°F | 62°F | +2°F | +6°F |
| Thu 10 | 51°F | 57°F | 65°F | +4°F | +10°F |
| Fri 11 | 48°F | 54°F | 59°F | −3°F | +8°F |
| Sat 12 | 39°F | 41°F | 46°F | −13°F | −4°F |
| Sun 13 | 35°F | 39°F | 43°F | −2°F | −5°F |
| Mon 14 | 32°F | 37°F | 44°F | −2°F | −7°F |
| Tue 15 | 36°F | 38°F | 42°F | +2°F | −6°F |
| Wed 16 | 34°F | 37°F | 41°F | −1°F | −6°F |
| Thu 17 | 33°F | 35°F | 38°F | −2°F | −8°F |
| Fri 18 | 32°F | 34°F | 37°F | −1°F | −10°F |
| Sat 19 | 30°F | 31°F | 32°F | −3°F | −13°F |
| Sun 20 | 28°F | 30°F | 32°F | −1°F | −13°F |
| Mon 21 | 29°F | 32°F | 38°F | +1°F | −12°F |
| Tue 22 | 32°F | 36°F | 44°F | +5°F | −6°F |
| Wed 23 | 33°F | 41°F | 50°F | +4°F | −1°F |
| Thu 24 | 34°F | 43°F | 50°F | +2°F | +2°F |
| Fri 25 | 41°F | 46°F | 51°F | +3°F | +5°F |
| Sat 26 | 32°F | 39°F | 46°F | −7°F | −2°F |
| Sun 27 | 44°F | 46°F | 50°F | +8°F | +5°F |
| Mon 28 | 41°F | 44°F | 47°F | −2°F | +4°F |
| Tue 29 | 41°F | 47°F | 53°F | +2°F | +6°F |
| Wed 30 | 34°F | 41°F | 52°F | −6°F | 0°F |
“vs. normal” is how far that day ran above or below the 1991–2020 average for the date. Rows marked fc are forecast.
How this is built
These are modeled estimates for the center of Zionsville (about 39.951° N, 86.262° W), about two inches down, not a probe in your yard, which can run several degrees off. History back to 1991 is ECMWF’s ERA5-Land reanalysis; the last few days and the week-ahead outlook are the Open-Meteo forecast model (the dashed line). No modeled depth matches the 2-inch or 4-inch garden standards, so we report the ~2-inch seedbed band and label it plainly rather than imply false precision. Updated daily.
Weather data by Open-Meteo.com, used under CC BY 4.0.