The Southern Great Plains 1997 (SGP97) Hydrology Experiment originated from an interdisciplinary investigation, "Soil Moisture Mapping at Satellite Temporal and Spatial Scales" (PI: Thomas J. Jackson, USDA Agricultural Research Service, Beltsville, MD) selected under the NASA Research Announcement 95-MTPE-03. The Continental-scale International Project (GCIP) Enhanced Observing Period (EOP) takes place in the Mississippi River basin, which provides a number of watershed areas that are potentially useful for hydrologic focused studies. The National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) Soil Temperature Dataset is one of several surface datasets provided for the Global Energy and Water-Balance Experiment (GEWEX) Continental-Scale International Project (GCIP) Near Surface Observation Data Set (NESOB) 1997 project. This dataset was formed by extracting soil temperature data from the GCIP/Enhanced Seasonal Observing Period 1997 (GCIP/ESOP-97) NCDC Summary of the Day Co-operative Dataset (TD-3200) for the NESOB 1997 area and time of interest. This NCDC Soil Temperature Dataset contains data from approximately 12 stations reporting soil temperature data for the NESOB 1997 time period (01 April 1997 through 31 March 1998) and in a domain slightly beyond that of NESOB 1997 (approximately 94.5W to 102W longitude and 34N to 39.5N latitude). The NCDC Soil Temperature Dataset contains seven metadata parameters and eighteen data parameters and flags. The metadata parameters describe the date, network, station and location at which the data were collected. Data values are valid for the 24 hours preceding the time of observation, and all times are UTC. Some stations may report soil temperatures at observation time twice a day. Separate records will occur for both observation times.