Atqasuk, Alaska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 2a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, potato, rhubarb, and kale, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Atqasuk, 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 Atqasuk 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 Atqasuk — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Atqasuk — the short answer
Atqasuk, Alaska: USDA zone 2a, about 98 days between hard freezes, across 25K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 2a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jun 7
- North Slope Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 13
- North Slope Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~98
- North Slope Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 25K 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 North Slope Borough’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 2a is Atqasuk's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Atqasuk's 98-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Atqasuk
Each reading below is measured for Atqasuk itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsAtqasuk runs about 98 days between hard freezes (read from North Slope Borough, the closest normal to Atqasuk) — a short growing season.
Long-maturing crops like melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can run out of runway before the first hard freeze, ripening late or not at all.
Lead with fast-maturing varieties, and stretch the season on both ends with cold frames, low tunnels, or a greenhouse.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredAtqasuk sits in USDA hardiness zone 2a.
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
What Grows in Atqasuk
Plants matched to Atqasuk's USDA zones 2a, ordered by how much hardiness margin each has here — the ones with room to spare at both ends of this town's band lead. Each links to its full growing profile.
Is it too late to plant in Atqasuk?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around May 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jun 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 13 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even here the calendar’s edges hold value: thirty-day greens late in the window, then garlic and a rested bed for spring.
What's on the federal record near Atqasuk
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Atqasuk. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DPW-HEMF AND O&MBrownfields · 2.1 mi
- NORTH SLOPE BOROUGH PUBLIC WORKSBrownfields · 2.1 mi
- LANDFILL ACCUMULATION AREABrownfields · 4.0 mi
- SEWAGE TREATMENT PLANTBrownfields · 4.0 mi
- POWER PLANTBrownfields · 4.0 mi
Measured from Atqasuk'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 Atqasuk.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Atqasuk
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Atqasuk
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 Atqasuk average
Your land is one point inside Atqasuk
Everything above resolves to Atqasuk as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 25K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from North Slope Borough’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’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 city 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 Atqasuk Average
Atqasuk Average
- ●USDA Zones 2a, averaged across Atqasuk
- ●One soil character for all of Atqasuk
- ●Frost dates read at Atqasuk's scale: Jun 7 to Sep 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Atqasuk's 2a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Atqasuk
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Atqasuk, Alaska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Atqasuk averages can't show:
We read public map data around Atqasuk — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Atqasuk average
How we know this about Atqasuk
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at North Slope Borough’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Atqasuk
When does frost risk typically end in Atqasuk?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Atqasuk typically lands around Jun 7, 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 Jun 28.
When is the first frost in Atqasuk?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Atqasuk typically arrives around Sep 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Aug 30, so the watching starts about Aug 14 — about 98 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Atqasuk?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Atqasuk sees about 98 frost-free days — roughly Jun 7 through Sep 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 28 to Aug 30, about 63 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Atqasuk?
The federal record around Atqasuk is light — 10 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Brownfields entries (10), the nearest Brownfields record about 2.1 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do gardeners stretch the season in Atqasuk?
With about 98 frost-free days between hard freezes, Atqasuk rewards the classic extension moves: floating row cover buys roughly two to four extra weeks at each shoulder — on this season that is a working window nearer 126 to 154 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the Jun 7 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Atqasuk's scale — its 2a band and its 98-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Atqasuk'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 Atqasuk’s own scale
3 of the readings below were taken at Atqasuk's own scale — the 25,037 acres it covers and 10 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Atqasuk's own USDA hardiness band, zones 2aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 10 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Atqasuk, the closest Brownfields record about 2.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Atqasuk's boundary and the 25,037 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Atqasuk has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom North Slope Borough
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Atqasuk's 25,037 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom North Slope County
- The candidate plant list — Alaska's curated set, filtered to this zone band and re-ordered by how much margin each has herefrom Alaska
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom North Slope County
- The growing challenges every Alaska grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Alaska
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom North Slope County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Atqasuk's 25,037 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Atqasuk you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 25,037 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 2.1 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 Atqasuk-wide figureread your own land →
More in Alaska
Wider growing context
What grows across AlaskaAtqasuk sits outside our named growing regions, so Alaska as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides