Steamboat Springs, Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, cilantro, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Steamboat Springs, 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 Steamboat Springs 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 Steamboat Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Steamboat Springs — the short answer
Steamboat Springs, Colorado: USDA zone 4b, about 127 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~127
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 6K 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 4b is Steamboat Springs's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Steamboat Springs's 127-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Steamboat Springs
Each reading below is measured for Steamboat Springs itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSteamboat Springs runs about 127 days between hard freezes — 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
MeasuredSteamboat Springs sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b.
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 Steamboat Springs is in
Steamboat Springs sits in the Southern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Steamboat Springs's own centroid rather than borrowed from Routt County.
What Grows in Steamboat Springs
Every plant below cleared Steamboat Springs's own zone 4b and its 127-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Steamboat Springs?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 25 — 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 Steamboat Springs
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Steamboat Springs. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Alta #6149Underground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- Steamboat Springs Space StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- Old City ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- SUNDANCE CLEANERS (STEAMBOAT SPRINGS)Brownfields · 0.5 mi
- Kum & Go #928Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Ski Haus ConocoUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Maintenance ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Stremels Quick MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- SHERWIN-WILLIAMS #707328Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- RESORT DRY CLEANERSBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- Walton Peak RclrUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Alpine Standard #3Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Steamboat Springs'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 Steamboat Springs.
Total Sites
102
within ~10 miles of Steamboat Springs
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Steamboat Springs
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Steamboat Springs
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Steamboat Springs, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 67 sites within ~10 miles of Steamboat Springs. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Steamboat Springs
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 Steamboat Springs average
Your land is one point inside Steamboat Springs
Everything above resolves to Steamboat Springs as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 6K 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 Steamboat Springs Average
Steamboat Springs Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Steamboat Springs
- ●One soil character for all of Steamboat Springs
- ●Frost dates read at Steamboat Springs's scale: May 21 to Sep 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Steamboat Springs's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Steamboat Springs
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Steamboat Springs, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Steamboat Springs averages can't show:
We read public map data around Steamboat Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Steamboat Springs average
How we know this about Steamboat Springs
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 Steamboat Springs’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 Steamboat Springs
When does frost risk typically end in Steamboat Springs?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Steamboat Springs typically lands around May 21, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Steamboat Springs?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Steamboat Springs typically arrives around Sep 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 11, so the watching starts about Aug 26 — about 127 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Steamboat Springs?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Steamboat Springs sees about 127 frost-free days — roughly May 21 through Sep 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 11 to Sep 11, about 92 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Steamboat Springs?
The federal record around Steamboat Springs is a meaningful one — 102 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (67), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 gardeners stretch the season in Steamboat Springs?
With about 127 frost-free days between hard freezes, Steamboat Springs 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 155 to 183 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 21 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Steamboat Springs's scale — its 4b band and its 127-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Steamboat Springs'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 Steamboat Springs’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Steamboat Springs's own scale — its own ~127-day season between 28°F freezes, the 6,330 acres it covers and 102 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Steamboat Springs's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Steamboat Springs's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 21 and Sep 25 and the ~127-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 102 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Steamboat Springs, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Steamboat Springs's boundary and the 6,330 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~127-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Steamboat Springs's own centroid, the Southern RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Steamboat Springs's 6,330 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Routt County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Routt County
- The growing challenges every Colorado grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Colorado
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Routt County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Steamboat Springs's 6,330 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Steamboat Springs you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,330 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Steamboat Springs-wide figureread your own land →
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