Utqiaġvik, Alaska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 2b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, potato, rhubarb, and kale; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Utqiaġvik, 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 Utqiaġvik 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 Utqiaġvik — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Utqiaġvik — the short answer
Utqiaġvik, Alaska: USDA zone 2b, about 98 days between hard freezes, across 12K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 2b
- 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
- 12K 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 2b is Utqiaġvik's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Utqiaġvik's 98-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Utqiaġvik
Each reading below is measured for Utqiaġvik itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsUtqiaġvik runs about 98 days between hard freezes (read from North Slope Borough, the closest normal to Utqiaġvik) — 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
MeasuredUtqiaġvik sits in USDA hardiness zone 2b.
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 Utqiaġvik
Plants matched to Utqiaġvik's USDA zones 2b, 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 Utqiaġvik?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 Utqiaġvik
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Utqiaġvik. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BARROW UTILITIES & ELEC. COOP., INC. (BUPFAS · 1.2 mi
- SOUTH PADBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- SEARCH AND RESCUEBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- ALASKA DOT & PF BARROW AIRPORTBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- WILEY POST–WILL ROGERS MEMORIAL AIRPORTBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- WILEY POST–WILL ROGERS MEMORIAL AIRPORTSuperfund · 1.7 mi
- NORTH SLOPE BOROUGH PUBLIC WORKSBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- FIRE STATION 1Brownfields · 1.9 mi
- BARROW POWER PLANTBrownfields · 2.0 mi
- SAMUEL SIMMONDS MEMORIAL HOSPITALBrownfields · 2.0 mi
- WARM STORAGE/SHOP 1/SHOP 2Brownfields · 2.5 mi
- NORTH SLOPE BOROUGH BARROW TOS FACILITYBrownfields · 3.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Utqiaġvik'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 Utqiaġvik.
Total Sites
50
within ~10 miles of Utqiaġvik
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Utqiaġvik
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Utqiaġvik
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Utqiaġvik, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Utqiaġvik — Superfund (4 sites) and Nitrate (28 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Utqiaġvik
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 Utqiaġvik average
Your land is one point inside Utqiaġvik
Everything above resolves to Utqiaġvik as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 12K 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 Utqiaġvik Average
Utqiaġvik Average
- ●USDA Zones 2b, averaged across Utqiaġvik
- ●One soil character for all of Utqiaġvik
- ●Frost dates read at Utqiaġvik's scale: Jun 7 to Sep 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Utqiaġvik's 2b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Utqiaġvik
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Utqiaġvik, Alaska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Utqiaġvik averages can't show:
We read public map data around Utqiaġvik — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Utqiaġvik average
How we know this about Utqiaġvik
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 Utqiaġvik
When does frost risk typically end in Utqiaġvik?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Utqiaġvik 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 Utqiaġvik?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Utqiaġvik 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 Utqiaġvik?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Utqiaġvik 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 Utqiaġvik?
The federal record around Utqiaġvik is a meaningful one — 50 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (28), the nearest PFAS record about 1.2 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 gardeners stretch the season in Utqiaġvik?
With about 98 frost-free days between hard freezes, Utqiaġvik 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 Utqiaġvik's scale — its 2b band and its 98-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Utqiaġvik'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 Utqiaġvik’s own scale
3 of the readings below were taken at Utqiaġvik's own scale — the 12,016 acres it covers and 50 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Utqiaġvik's own USDA hardiness band, zones 2bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 50 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Utqiaġvik, the closest PFAS record about 1.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Utqiaġvik's boundary and the 12,016 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Utqiaġvik 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 Utqiaġvik's 12,016 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 Utqiaġvik's 12,016 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Utqiaġvik you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 12,016 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest PFAS record about 1.2 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 Utqiaġvik-wide figureread your own land →
More in Alaska
Wider growing context
What grows across AlaskaUtqiaġvik sits outside our named growing regions, so Alaska as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides