The UK soil temperature data contain daily and hourly values of soil temperatures at depths of 5, 10, 20, 30, 50, and 100 centimetres. The measurements were recorded by observation stations operated by the Met Office across the UK and transmitted within NCM or DLY3208 messages. The data spans from 1900 to 2018.

This version supersedes the previous version of this dataset and a change log is available in the archive, and in the linked documentation for this record, detailing the differences between this version and the previous version. The change logs detail new, replaced and removed data.

At many stations temperatures below the surface are measured at various depths. The depths used today are 5, 10, 20, 30 and 100cm, although measurements are not necessarily made at all these depths at a station and exceptionally measurements may be made at other depths. When imperial units were in general use, typically before 1961, the normal depths of measurement were 4, 8, 12, 24 and 48 inches.

Liquid-in-glass soil thermometers at a depth of 20 cm or less are unsheathed and have a bend in the stem between the bulb and the lowest graduation. At greater depths the thermometer is suspended in a steel tube and has its bulb encased in wax.

This dataset is part of the Midas-open dataset collection made available by the Met Office under the UK Open Government Licence, containing only UK mainland land surface observations owned or operated by the Met Office. It is a subset of the fuller, restricted Met Office Integrated Data Archive System (MIDAS) Land and Marine Surface Stations dataset, also available through the Centre for Environmental Data Analysis - see the related dataset section on this record.