McRae, Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in McRae, 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 McRae 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 McRae — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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McRae — the short answer
McRae, Arkansas: USDA zone 8a, about 252 days between hard freezes, across 431 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~252
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 431 acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 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 8a is McRae's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against McRae's 252-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in McRae
Each reading below is measured for McRae itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMcRae runs about 252 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
MeasuredMcRae sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 McRae is in
McRae sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at McRae's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: White County is mostly Arkansas Valley. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in McRae
Every plant below cleared McRae's own zone 8a and its 252-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in McRae?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 17 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near McRae
Closest first, within ~10 miles of McRae. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- JONES FARMUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- MCRAE, CITY OFUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- MIRAJ FLASH MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- MCRAE PUBLIC SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- UP-MCRAE NITRIC ACIDSuperfund · 2300 ft
- 06N08W25BAC1Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- McRAE K.M.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- 06N06W31ACC1Nitrate · 2.0 mi
- WARRINGTON TIREUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- GENES BODY SHOPBrownfields · 3.2 mi
- SEARCY MUNICIPAL AIRPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- GUERDON INDUSTRIES, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from McRae'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 McRae.
Total Sites
129
within ~10 miles of McRae
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of McRae
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of McRae
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around McRae, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 9 sites within ~10 miles of McRae. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in McRae
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 McRae average
Your land is one point inside McRae
Everything above resolves to McRae as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 431 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 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 McRae Average
McRae Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across McRae
- ●One soil character for all of McRae
- ●Frost dates read at McRae's scale: Mar 10 to Nov 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not McRae's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in McRae
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in McRae, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that McRae averages can't show:
We read public map data around McRae — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the McRae average
How we know this about McRae
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 McRae’s own record; 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 McRae
When does frost risk typically end in McRae?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in McRae typically lands around Mar 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 Mar 31.
When is the first frost in McRae?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in McRae typically arrives around Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 3, so the watching starts about Oct 18 — about 252 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in McRae?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, McRae sees about 252 frost-free days — roughly Mar 10 through Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 31 to Nov 3, about 217 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in McRae?
The federal record around McRae is a meaningful one — 129 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (73), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 I protect my plants from frost in McRae?
From about Oct 18 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at McRae's scale — its 8a band and its 252-day season. Your yard writes its own version of McRae'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 McRae’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at McRae's own scale — its own ~252-day season between 28°F freezes, the 431 acres it covers and 129 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- McRae's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- McRae's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 10 and Nov 17 and the ~252-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 129 documented contamination sites on the federal record near McRae, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- McRae's boundary and the 431 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~252-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- McRae sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so McRae's 431 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom White County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom White 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 White County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among McRae's 431 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of McRae you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 431 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 McRae-wide figureread your own land →