Ten years of soil moisture measurements (biweekly from March through September and monthly during winter) within the top 1 m of soil at 17 grass-covered sites across Illinois are analyzed to provide a climatology of soil moisture for this important Midwest agricultural region. Sod moisture measurements were obtained with neutron probes that were calibrated for each site. Measurement errors are dependent upon the volumetric water content with errors less than 20 percent when soil moisture is above 10 percent of soil volume. Single point errors in moisture measurements from the top 1 m of soil range from 6 percent to 13 percent when volumetric soil moisture is 30 percent of soil volume. The average depletion in moisture between winter and summer over the 10-year period for the top 2 m of soil in Illinois was 72.3 mm. Three-quarters of this decrease occurred above 0.5 m and only 5 percent occurred between the 1.0-m and 2.0-m depths. The average moisture decrease between winter and summer during a we... Abstract Ten years of soil moisture measurements (biweekly from March through September and monthly during winter) within the top 1 m of soil at 17 grass-covered sites across Illinois are analyzed to provide a climatology of soil moisture for this important Midwest agricultural region. Sod moisture measurements were obtained with neutron probes that were calibrated for each site. Measurement errors are dependent upon the volumetric water content with errors less than 20 percent when soil moisture is above 10 percent of soil volume. Single point errors in moisture measurements from the top 1 m of soil range from 6 percent to 13 percent when volumetric soil moisture is 30 percent of soil volume. The average depletion in moisture between winter and summer over the 10-year period for the top 2 m of soil in Illinois was 72.3 mm. Three-quarters of this decrease occurred above 0.5 m and only 5 percent occurred between the 1.0-m and 2.0-m depths. The average moisture decrease between winter and summer during a we...