Skagway, Alaska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Skagway, 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 Skagway 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 Skagway — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Skagway — the short answer
Skagway, Alaska: USDA zone 5b, about 202 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 10
- Skagway Municipality normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 29
- Skagway Municipality normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~202
- Skagway Municipality normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 6K 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 Skagway Municipality’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 5b is Skagway's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Skagway's 202-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Skagway
Each reading below is measured for Skagway itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsSkagway runs about 202 days between hard freezes (read from Skagway Municipality, the closest normal to Skagway) — 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 sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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
Every plant below cleared Skagway's own zone 5b and its 202-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alaska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Skagway?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. 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. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Skagway
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Skagway. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MCCABE COLLEGE CITY HALL US COURTHOUSE RBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- Skagway Bus FacilityUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- Corner StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- Public Works Maintenance ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- SKAGWAY RAILROAD YARDSuperfund · 1.7 mi
- Family FuelUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- Skagway RepeaterUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- WHITE PASS & YUKON ROUTE RRBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- NAHKU ORE FACILITYSuperfund · 1.8 mi
- Skagway FuelsUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- PETRO MARINE SERVICES - SKAGWAYBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- SKAGWAY CY OF LANDFILLBrownfields · 2.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Skagway'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.
Total Sites
18
within ~10 miles of Skagway
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Skagway
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Skagway
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •Mine waste leaches heavy metals. Test for lead, arsenic and cadmium before growing food here.
Check your specific parcel in Skagway
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 average
Your land is one point inside Skagway
Everything above resolves to Skagway as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 6K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Skagway Municipality’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 Skagway Average
Skagway Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Skagway
- ●One soil character for all of Skagway
- ●Frost dates read at Skagway's scale: Apr 10 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Skagway's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Skagway
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Skagway, Alaska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Skagway averages can't show:
We read public map data around Skagway — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Skagway average
How we know this about Skagway
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 Skagway Municipality’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 Skagway
When does frost risk typically end in Skagway?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Skagway 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.
When is the first frost in Skagway?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Skagway typically arrives around Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 15, so the watching starts about Sep 29 — about 202 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Skagway?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Skagway 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?
The federal record around Skagway is a meaningful one — 18 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (8), the nearest Brownfields record about 1.1 miles 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Skagway?
From about Sep 29 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 Oct 29 (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 Oct 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Skagway's scale — its 5b band and its 202-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Skagway'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 Skagway’s own scale
4 of the readings below were taken at Skagway's own scale — the 6,058 acres it covers and 18 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Skagway's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 18 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Skagway, the closest Brownfields record about 1.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Skagway's boundary and the 6,058 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~202-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Skagway has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Skagway Municipality
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Skagway's 6,058 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Skagway County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Skagway 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 Skagway County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Skagway's 6,058 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Skagway you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,058 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 1.1 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 Skagway-wide figureread your own land →