The experts will weigh in but I think you live in a cold area. I do too. It has been getting warmer here as well but my ground temp has been too cold. My advice is to get a point and shoot thermometer and check the ground first.
It depends on the actual temps in YOUR enclosure. If its 70 and sunny, they should be fine. I use a kiddie pool with a dark colored substrate in the "winter" here. On a 60 degree sunny day, the ground temp gets into the mid 80's and their body temp get into the 90's. You'll need an infrared temp gun, like Erin said, so you can check the enclosure temps and your actual tort temps.
If you go back and click on "User CP" up at the top of the page and then click on "Edit Profile" over to the left, you can scroll down and put in your location under "Additional information" and then we can all see where you are and have a better understanding of YOUR conditions.
Do you realize just how much trouble you put this old geography challenged person to? I actually had to look at a map and see if there was a Cincinnati in Kentucky.
Lol, Yvonne! I had to look up where Ohio even is... I never realized it was so far east! (For that matter, I didn't know Minnesota was between the Dakotas and Wisconsin until yesterday, either... Geography was always my weakest subject... Haha!)
Anyway, back on topic: If it's 70 and sunny, the pavement around your house that gets hit by direct sun (walkways, porches, etc) should be plenty warm enough. I've been taking my bearded dragons out to bask on stone retaining walls and the cement porch whenever it's above 60-ish and sunny, because, even though the ground may only be in the 60s, the stone/cement areas have soaked in the sun long enough to be 80-90F. Plenty warm enough for my little Aussie lizards to soak up some rays, as it would be for your Sulcatas. That's my take on the subject, anyway...
HA!! You guys are killing me!! When people ask me where I live I always say near Cincinnati bc I feel that is a big enough city to where most people will know where it is
I'm excited to let them out but I can't put them in my lawn, I just got my first yard treatment of the season yesterday.....blah.
I lived in Cincinnati / Northern Ky for 10 years before moving to Az. I miss the green rolling hills and some of the specialty food items (Graeters, Skyline and southern-regional food items). I would eat out every week here if we had a Bob Evans .. .. .. I lived in Burlington KY while I went to school in Ohio - had to either drive a long way on the freeway, or chance taking the ferry across the Ohio River. My favorite memory of that time is waiting one morning with the mist/fog heavy over the river. I couldn't understand why we were (fully loaded) just sitting, waiting to cross. Then out of the mist came a steamboat - stern wheeler - looking like a ghost cruising almost silently up river toward Cincinnati. I had goosebumps watching that magestic lady cruise by and wish I had a camera for the event.
I loved my time in Cincinnati, and would not think the area, or the people, backwards at all..........
I am living in the desert, wishing we were closer to the rolling green hills.....
I personally would not allow my Sulcata on any lawn that has been treated. Where do you put your tortoises? Do they have their own grass? Untreated? I open Bob's doggie (tort) door no matter what the temperature and give him the choice of in or out. If it's cold he walks his perimeter then goes back inside and basks...he's been going out all winter, but unfortunately his grass is all gone...turned into mud.
I can't let them out in my yard at home bc my lawn is treated for weeds and crabgrass. I can let them out in the courtyard at school. We don't treat for weeks on school grounds. There is no money for it, tons of dandelions!!! Heaven!!!