Smoke Rise, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Smoke Rise, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Smoke Rise lot. Enter your address and we'll score 1,086 plants against your land's actual soil, sun, and frost.
We read public map data around Smoke Rise — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Smoke Rise — the short answer
Smoke Rise, Alabama: USDA zone 8a, about 253 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 13
- Blount County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 21
- Blount County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~253
- Blount County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 4K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. No 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid, so the hard-freeze dates are Blount County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Smoke Rise's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Smoke Rise's 253-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Smoke Rise
Each reading below is measured for Smoke Rise itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsSmoke Rise runs about 253 days between hard freezes (read from Blount County, the closest normal to Smoke Rise) — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredSmoke Rise sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
The zone sets which perennials, shrubs, and fruit trees live through an average winter here — a plant rated for a colder zone is a safe bet, one rated warmer needs winter protection or gets treated as an annual.
Match perennials and fruit to the zone before you buy, so nothing you plant is a gamble against the cold.
USDA PHZM 2023
The kind of country Smoke Rise is in
Smoke Rise sits in the Southwestern Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Smoke Rise's own centroid rather than borrowed from Blount County.
What Grows in Smoke Rise
Every plant below cleared Smoke Rise's own zone 8a and its 253-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Smoke Rise?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 21 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Smoke Rise
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Smoke Rise. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SMOKE RISE FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- AL0035Underground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- HERSCHEL N THOMAS STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- STELLA-JONES CORPToxics Release Inventory · 2.0 mi
- PIT STOP #11 PHILLIPS 66Underground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- LOGANS GENERAL STORE PETROUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- HAYDEN SHELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- LOUIS ALLIS, LLCBrownfields · 2.2 mi
- MILL IT UP LLCBrownfields · 2.5 mi
- CITGO HAYDENUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- HAYDEN HIGH SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- JETT CHECK GROUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Smoke Rise's center, not your beds. Run your own address for what's upwind of you specifically.
Environmental Intelligence
The counts behind that headline — every source type on the record near Smoke Rise.
Total Sites
102
within ~10 miles of Smoke Rise
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
6 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Smoke Rise
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Smoke Rise
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Smoke Rise, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Smoke Rise — PFAS (3 sites) and CAFO (3 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Smoke Rise
Get exact proximity distances to contamination sources for your specific parcel — plus soil, sun, drainage, and 1,086 plant recommendations.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Smoke Rise average
Your land is one point inside Smoke Rise
Everything above resolves to Smoke Rise as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 4K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Blount County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid. Your parcel is one point inside that footprint. Slope, tree cover, a low spot that pools cold air, and what is in the soil are all resolved at the address, and none of them are visible at town scale. That is the honest boundary of this page, and the reason the next step is a reading of your own ground rather than a better local average.
Your Lot vs the Smoke Rise Average
Smoke Rise Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Smoke Rise
- ●One soil character for all of Smoke Rise
- ●Frost dates read at Smoke Rise's scale: Mar 13 to Nov 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Smoke Rise's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Smoke Rise
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Smoke Rise, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Smoke Rise averages can't show:
We read public map data around Smoke Rise — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Smoke Rise average
How we know this about Smoke Rise
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Blount County’s record, because none resolves here; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Smoke Rise
When does frost risk typically end in Smoke Rise?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Smoke Rise typically lands around Mar 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — earlier than the light-frost dates most charts quote. That marks the hard freeze, not the last light frost — lighter frosts keep biting past it, which is why tender transplants here wait until about Apr 3.
When is the first frost in Smoke Rise?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Smoke Rise typically arrives around Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 7, so the watching starts about Oct 22 — about 253 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Smoke Rise?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Smoke Rise sees about 253 frost-free days — roughly Mar 13 through Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 3 to Nov 7, about 218 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Smoke Rise?
The federal record around Smoke Rise shows 102 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (71), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.5 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Smoke Rise?
From about Oct 22 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Nov 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Nov 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Smoke Rise's scale — its 8a band and its 253-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Smoke Rise's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Smoke Rise’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Smoke Rise's own scale — the 3,664 acres it covers and 102 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Smoke Rise's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 102 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Smoke Rise, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Smoke Rise's boundary and the 3,664 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~253-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Smoke Rise's own centroid, the Southwestern AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Smoke Rise has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Blount County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Smoke Rise's 3,664 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Blount County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Blount County
- The growing challenges every Alabama grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Alabama
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Blount County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Smoke Rise's 3,664 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Smoke Rise you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,664 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.5 miles out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Smoke Rise-wide figureread your own land →
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