McNab, Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in McNab, 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 McNab 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 McNab — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
McNab — the short answer
McNab, Arkansas: USDA zone 8b, about 260 days between hard freezes, across 220 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 4
- Hempstead County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 19
- Hempstead County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~260
- Hempstead County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 220 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 Hempstead County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is McNab's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against McNab's 260-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in McNab
Each reading below is measured for McNab itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsMcNab runs about 260 days between hard freezes (read from Hempstead County, the closest normal to McNab) — close to year-round growing.
Frost is rarely the limit here; winter plantings are as real as summer ones, and the harder question is which crops shrug off the summer heat.
Grow cool-season crops through the mild winter, and choose heat-tolerant varieties for the summer beds.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredMcNab sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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
The kind of country McNab is in
McNab sits in the South Central Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at McNab's own centroid rather than borrowed from Hempstead County.
What Grows in McNab
Every plant below cleared McNab's own zone 8b and its 260-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in McNab?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 19 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
What's on the federal record near McNab
Closest first, within ~10 miles of McNab. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TURK POWER PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 1.6 mi
- TURK POWER PLANTBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- HOPE WATER LIGHT COMMPFAS · 2.3 mi
- 12S27W23BDA1Nitrate · 3.2 mi
- LATSHAW'S GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- 12S26W21AAC1Nitrate · 3.4 mi
- TYSON FOODS, INC. - TYSON FEED MILLBrownfields · 3.6 mi
- SOUTHWEST ARKANSAS REGIONAL FEED MILLToxics Release Inventory · 3.6 mi
- SARATOGA SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- 13S26W16DDA1Nitrate · 3.7 mi
- BOLLWEEVIL, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- 13S26W20ADD1Nitrate · 3.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from McNab'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 McNab.
Total Sites
107
within ~10 miles of McNab
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of McNab
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of McNab
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around McNab, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 82 sites within ~10 miles of McNab. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in McNab
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 McNab average
Your land is one point inside McNab
Everything above resolves to McNab as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 220 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Hempstead County’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 McNab Average
McNab Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across McNab
- ●One soil character for all of McNab
- ●Frost dates read at McNab's scale: Mar 4 to Nov 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not McNab's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in McNab
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in McNab, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that McNab averages can't show:
We read public map data around McNab — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the McNab average
How we know this about McNab
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 Hempstead County’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 McNab
When does frost risk typically end in McNab?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in McNab typically lands around Mar 4, 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 Mar 25.
When is the first frost in McNab?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in McNab typically arrives around Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 5, so the watching starts about Oct 20 — about 260 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in McNab?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, McNab sees about 260 frost-free days — roughly Mar 4 through Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 25 to Nov 5, about 225 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in McNab?
The federal record around McNab shows 107 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (82), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory record about 1.6 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in McNab?
From about Oct 20 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 Nov 19 (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 Nov 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at McNab's scale — its 8b band and its 260-day season. Your yard writes its own version of McNab'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 McNab’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at McNab's own scale — the 220 acres it covers and 107 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- McNab's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 107 documented contamination sites on the federal record near McNab, the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 1.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- McNab's boundary and the 220 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~260-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at McNab's own centroid, the South Central PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — McNab has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Hempstead County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so McNab's 220 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Hempstead County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Hempstead County
- The growing challenges every Arkansas grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Arkansas
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Hempstead County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among McNab's 220 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of McNab you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 220 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 1.6 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 McNab-wide figureread your own land →