WEATHER · SOIL MOISTURE
Soil Moisture
Surface soil moisture (0—1 cm) as volumetric water content — the drought, irrigation and wildfire-fuel signal. Dry earth reads brown and lets the map show through; damp ground deepens to blue. A MODEL field (worked out from rainfall, evaporation and soil physics), not a direct measurement — framed honestly.
What it shows
Soil moisture shows how wet the very top layer of the ground is (the 0—1 cm surface skin), measured as volumetric water content — the fraction of the soil, by volume, that is water. It is the drought, irrigation and wildfire-fuel signal: dry surface soil means thirsty crops, dusty ground and easily-ignited vegetation, while wet soil means recent rain, run-off risk and slow drying. This is a MODEL estimate, not a direct measurement — the DWD ICON model works it out from rainfall, evaporation and soil physics — so it is best read as a well-informed picture of where the ground is wet or dry rather than a reading off a probe in that exact field.
How to read it
Brown and tan are dry to bone-dry ground, and the driest areas fade to let the map show through; as the soil wets it deepens through earthy teal into blue, with deep blue marking saturated ground. The values are a ratio (m³/m³): very roughly, below about 0.10 is dry, around 0.25 is comfortably moist, and 0.40 and up is wet toward saturated. Read it against the Rain and Precipitation fields to see wet ground following a rain band through, and against Soil Temperature for the two halves of the growing-conditions picture. Tap the map for the value at any spot.
SEE IT LIVE
Open the full weather console with soil moisture on, then stack other overlays and scrub the forecast.