White Mountain, Alaska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect okra, cranberry, cilantro, and zucchini to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in White Mountain, 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 White Mountain 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 White Mountain — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
White Mountain — the short answer
White Mountain, Alaska: USDA zone 4a, about 118 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 24
- Nome Census Area normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 19
- Nome Census Area normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~118
- Nome Census Area normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 1K 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 Nome Census Area’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 4a is White Mountain's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against White Mountain's 118-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in White Mountain
Each reading below is measured for White Mountain itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsWhite Mountain runs about 118 days between hard freezes (read from Nome Census Area, the closest normal to White Mountain) — 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
MeasuredWhite Mountain sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a.
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 White Mountain
Every plant below cleared White Mountain's own zone 4a and its 118-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alaska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in White Mountain?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 19 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a season this compact, fast finishers and cold-hardy greens do the late work, and garlic tucked in before the freeze repays you next summer.
Environmental Check
No contamination sources found near White Mountain
We checked 9 federal environmental databases and found no recorded contamination sites in this area. A clean starting point for growing.
Your land is one point inside White Mountain
Everything above resolves to White Mountain as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Nome Census Area’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 White Mountain Average
White Mountain Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across White Mountain
- ●One soil character for all of White Mountain
- ●Frost dates read at White Mountain's scale: May 24 to Sep 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not White Mountain's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in White Mountain
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in White Mountain, Alaska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that White Mountain averages can't show:
We read public map data around White Mountain — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the White Mountain average
How we know this about White Mountain
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 Nome Census Area’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 White Mountain
When does frost risk typically end in White Mountain?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in White Mountain typically lands around May 24, 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 14.
When is the first frost in White Mountain?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in White Mountain typically arrives around Sep 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 5, so the watching starts about Aug 20 — about 118 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in White Mountain?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, White Mountain sees about 118 frost-free days — roughly May 24 through Sep 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 14 to Sep 5, about 83 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in White Mountain?
No database can certify soil, but the federal record here is clean: we checked all 9 federal contamination source types and found no documented sites within the search radii around White Mountain. That means nothing is on record — not that the land is certified clean — so a one-time soil test is still the way to know your own yard's history.
How do gardeners stretch the season in White Mountain?
With about 118 frost-free days between hard freezes, White Mountain 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 146 to 174 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 24 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at White Mountain's scale — its 4a band and its 118-day season. Your yard writes its own version of White Mountain'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 White Mountain’s own scale
3 of the readings below were taken at White Mountain's own scale — the 1,155 acres it covers; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- White Mountain's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- White Mountain's boundary and the 1,155 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~118-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — White Mountain has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Nome Census Area
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so White Mountain's 1,155 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Nome County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Nome 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 Nome County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among White Mountain's 1,155 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of White Mountain you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,155 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How much sun your beds actually get once the trees leaf outmeasuring sun honestly →
- 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 White Mountain-wide figureread your own land →
More in Alaska
Wider growing context
What grows across AlaskaWhite Mountain sits outside our named growing regions, so Alaska as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides