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The Ground Across the Valley Is Still Warm as Daylight Slips Under 11 Hours
How warm is the soil right now in Columbus, Georgia, and how much daylight are we losing each day?
The soil about two and a half inches down around Columbus, Georgia is near 69 degrees, while daylight is down to 10 hours and 48 minutes and shrinking by roughly 1.7 minutes a day.
Photo: Kampus Production / Pexels
Walk out onto the RiverWalk on the Phenix City side a few minutes before 7 in the morning and the sun comes up over Columbus at 6:58. Come back at the end of the day and it is gone by 5:47. That is 10 hours and 48 minutes of daylight, and the valley is losing about another minute and 42 seconds of it every day.
Here is the part most people would not guess. While the sky is running out of light, the ground is still holding onto summer. About two and a half inches down, the soil around Columbus is sitting at 69 degrees. A normal early-November day here tops out near 73 and bottoms out near 50, so the middle of an average day is around 61. The dirt under your feet is running roughly eight degrees warmer than the air averages.
Soil is slow in both directions. It spent June, July and August absorbing sunshine, and it is still paying that heat back. Water and packed mineral hold warmth far better than air does, and it takes weeks of cool nights, not days, to pull it out. That is why a cold morning in Hamilton or Manchester does not mean cold ground in Hamilton or Manchester.
Depth smooths things out, too. Over the course of a day, that shallow soil reading only wandered between 66 and 73 degrees, a swing of about seven degrees, while the air above it swings two or three times that much. Go deeper and the daily wobble all but disappears. The red clay walls at Providence Canyon near Lumpkin, the fields around Cuthbert and Butler, the lawns in LaGrange off Lafayette Square: all of them are still warm underneath.
That matters if you are planting. Roots keep growing in warm soil long after the leaves above them have quit for the year, which is what makes November a workable month for trees, shrubs, bulbs and cool-season grass seed in Harris County or Lee County alike. The ground is not the limiting factor yet. The daylight is.
And the daylight keeps going. The next mark on the calendar is the December solstice, Monday, December 21 at 10:03 AM, 48 days from today. Between now and then the daily losses gradually get smaller, the way a ball slows as it reaches the top of its arc, until the sun stops sliding south and starts back north. Until then, the evening commute from Opelika to Auburn, or out of Tuskegee, or along the lake road in Eufaula, finishes in the dark more often than not.
If you have been meaning to get something into the ground, do it on a weekend when you have daylight to spare rather than after work. The soil is on your side for a few more weeks. The clock is the thing in short supply.
Right now in Columbus, Georgia
67°Temperature
62°Dew point
84%Humidity
9 mphWind — east
30.13"Pressure
The next seven days
Day
High
Low
Rain
Conditions
TODAY
81°
66°
24%
Mostly Cloudy then Slight Chance Rain Showers
WED
79°
64°
79%
Showers And Thunderstorms
THU
81°
58°
35%
Chance Showers And Thunderstorms
FRI
79°
52°
18%
Slight Chance Showers And Thunderstorms
SAT
76°
48°
8%
Mostly Sunny
SUN
71°
45°
15%
Slight Chance Rain Showers
MON
68°
41°
6%
Mostly Sunny
Written by the CNAW2 weather desk from CNAW2 weather desk data. Last updated November 3, 2026 at 7:58 AM Eastern. Covering Columbus and Phenix City, Auburn–Opelika, LaGrange, Eufaula and the rest of the 19-county CNAW viewing area.
