Skagway Municipality, in Alaska, sits in USDA hardiness zones 3a-4b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Skagway Municipality lies within the Southeast Alaska / Inside Passage Panhandle — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Skagway Municipality holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Skagway Municipality, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 Skagway Municipality — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Skagway Municipality — the short answer
Skagway Municipality, Alaska: USDA zones 3a-4b, about 202 days between hard freezes, across 283K acres.
- USDA zones
- 3a-4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 10
- SKAGWAY AIRPORT station, 24 ft — 12 km away, 29 yr record
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 29
- SKAGWAY AIRPORT station, 24 ft — 12 km away, 29 yr record
- Days between freezes
- ~202
- SKAGWAY AIRPORT station, 24 ft — 12 km away, 29 yr record
- County area
- 283K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 3a-4b is Skagway Municipality's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Skagway Municipality's 202-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil in Skagway County
Across Skagway County, the ground is predominantly Inceptisols. The soil is generally well drained with a bedrock surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.0–5.7, very strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Inceptisols
Drainage
Well drained
Hydric soils
2%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Skagway Municipality
Each reading below is measured for Skagway Municipality itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Skagway Municipality are well drained, in hydrologic group D — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Skagway Municipality runs about pH 4.0–5.7, on the acidic side.
Blueberries, potatoes, and rhododendrons thrive in it, but most vegetables start locking out nutrients below about pH 6.0 and grow pale and stunted no matter how much you feed them.
A measured lime application raises pH for the crops that need it — but test first, because the right rate depends on your own soil, not the county average.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredSkagway Municipality runs about 202 days between hard freezes — 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
MeasuredSkagway Municipality sits in USDA hardiness zones 3a-4b.
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 Skagway Municipality
We scored all 1,086 plants against Skagway Municipality's own USDA zone 3a-4b and its own 202-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's Alaska profile.
Is it too late to plant in Skagway Municipality?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 29 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Skagway County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Skagway County — 19 documented sites across 5 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed). Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
There's a meaningful federal record across Skagway County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Skagway Municipality
Closest first, across Skagway County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SKAGWAYPFAS · 0 ft
- DOTPF Maintenance & Operation SkagwayUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.2 mi
- AMHS - Skagway Ferry TerminalUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.2 mi
- Inspiration PointMining · 6.1 mi
- SKAGWAY CY OF LANDFILLBrownfields · 6.2 mi
- MCCABE COLLEGE CITY HALL US COURTHOUSE RBrownfields · 7.1 mi
- Public Works Maintenance ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.1 mi
- Skagway Bus FacilityUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.2 mi
- Corner StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.2 mi
- Skagway RepeaterUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.3 mi
- Unnamed (at headwaters of Burro Creek)Mining · 7.3 mi
- WHITE PASS & YUKON ROUTE RRBrownfields · 7.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Skagway Municipality'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 Skagway Municipality.
Total Sites
19
across Skagway County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Skagway County
Severity Distribution
across Skagway County
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Mine waste leaches heavy metals. Test for lead, arsenic and cadmium before growing food here.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Skagway Municipality
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 Skagway Municipality average
Your land is one point inside Skagway Municipality
Everything above resolves to Skagway Municipality as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 283K acres. 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Skagway Municipality Average
Skagway Municipality Average
- ●USDA Zones 3a-4b, averaged across Skagway Municipality
- ●One soil character for all of Skagway Municipality
- ●Frost dates read at Skagway Municipality's scale: Apr 10 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Skagway Municipality's 3a-4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Skagway Municipality
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Skagway Municipality, Alaska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Skagway Municipality averages can't show:
We read public map data around Skagway Municipality — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Skagway Municipality average
How we know this about Skagway Municipality
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Skagway Municipality carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Skagway Municipality
When does frost risk typically end in Skagway Municipality?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Skagway Municipality typically lands around Apr 10, 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 May 1.
How long is the growing season in Skagway Municipality?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Skagway Municipality sees about 202 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Oct 15, about 167 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Skagway Municipality?
The federal record around Skagway Municipality is a meaningful one — 19 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (8), the nearest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
Everything above is measured at Skagway Municipality's scale — its 3a-4b band and its 202-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Skagway Municipality's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads Alaska's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Skagway Municipality’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Skagway Municipality's own scale — its own ~202-day span between 28°F freezes and 19 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Skagway Municipality's own USDA hardiness band, zones 3a-4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Skagway Municipality's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~202-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The dominant soil order and drainage mapped across Skagway MunicipalityUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 19 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile outFederal environmental registers
- Skagway Municipality's boundary and the 283,474 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 3a-4b and a ~202-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Alaska grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Alaska
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Skagway Municipality — the ~202 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Skagway Municipality's 283,474 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 19 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Skagway Municipalityread your own land →