We lived in Idaho Falls during Navy training for 8 months back in 1979.
Funniest thing we heard each morning on the radio was the “6 inch soil temperature” .... Turns out the nearby potato farms needed to plant potatoes as soon as the 6 inch soil got warm enough in the spring to let them grow, then could not harvest them until the 6 inch soil got cool enough in the fall to make them firm. In the meantime, each day’s 6 inch soil temperature told the farmer how fast they were growing.
Robert, you are a font of interesting information.