The data set contains temperature and humidity time-series from a salt desert showing salt polygons at the surface. The data set characterizes the environmental conditions of the salt deserts and is used together with other data sets (which characterize the surface and subsurface of the desert) to explain the driving mechanism of salt polygon growth in salt deserts.For three sites, temperature data loggers of type HiTemp140 with measurement precision of 0.01°C and humidity data loggers of type RHTemp1000IS with a precision of 0.1% were placed at the center of a salt polygon and inside a salt ridge to enable a comparison between center- and ridge values for temperature and humidity. Data loggers were active for 7 days in late 2016 and recorded temperature and humidity values every minute.Measurements were conducted at 3 sites at Owens Lake, Central California. All data was recorded during a field campaign in November and December 2016.Related to this data are also- grain size distributions of sand samples taken at the field sites at different depths (see data at https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.910996),- pictures and videos characterizing the sites (see data at https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.911054),- salinity profiles from cross-sections below polygons and background salt concentration measurements (see data at https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.922264 ),- as well as surface scans measured by TLS (see data at https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.911233)- and a chemical characterization of the salt species present in the crust (see data at https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.911239).

New version with a few doubtful values removed.