Nora, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Nora, 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 Nora 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 Nora — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Nora — the short answer
Nora, Illinois: USDA zone 5a, about 185 days between hard freezes, across 531 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~185
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 531 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 5a is Nora's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Nora's 185-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Nora
Each reading below is measured for Nora itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNora runs about 185 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredNora sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 Nora is in
Nora sits in the Driftless Area — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Nora's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jo Daviess County.
What Grows in Nora
Every plant below cleared Nora's own zone 5a and its 185-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Nora?
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 Mar 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 19 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
What's on the federal record near Nora
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Nora. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- M&M BODY SHOP INCBrownfields · 1300 ft
- CARTER MOTOR COBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- Harbach Farms, LTDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- BRINKMEIER FARMS, INC - DAIRYCAFO · 2.1 mi
- Foster ImpltUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- Flynn Ready Mix Concrete CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- BLAIR FARMS/JOE AND JEFFCAFO · 2.3 mi
- L & S CorpUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- Warren Ag SerUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- Bonjour WilburUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- Neff Oil, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- Brown DonaldUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Nora'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 Nora.
Total Sites
128
within ~10 miles of Nora
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
5 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Nora
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Nora
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Nora, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Nora — CAFO (8 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (96 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Nora
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 Nora average
Your land is one point inside Nora
Everything above resolves to Nora as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 531 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 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 Nora Average
Nora Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Nora
- ●One soil character for all of Nora
- ●Frost dates read at Nora's scale: Apr 17 to Oct 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Nora's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Nora
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Nora, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Nora averages can't show:
We read public map data around Nora — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Nora average
How we know this about Nora
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 Nora’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 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 Nora
When does frost risk typically end in Nora?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Nora typically lands around Apr 17, 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 May 8.
When is the first frost in Nora?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Nora typically arrives around Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 5, so the watching starts about Sep 19 — about 185 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Nora?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Nora sees about 185 frost-free days — roughly Apr 17 through Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 8 to Oct 5, about 150 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Nora?
The federal record around Nora shows 128 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (96), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.3 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 Nora?
From about Sep 19 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 Oct 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 Oct 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Nora's scale — its 5a band and its 185-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Nora'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 Nora’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Nora's own scale — its own ~185-day season between 28°F freezes, the 531 acres it covers and 128 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Nora's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Nora's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 17 and Oct 19 and the ~185-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 128 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Nora, the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Nora's boundary and the 531 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~185-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Nora's own centroid, the Driftless AreaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Nora's 531 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jo Daviess County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jo Daviess County
- The growing challenges every Illinois grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Illinois
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Jo Daviess County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Nora's 531 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Nora you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 531 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 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 Nora-wide figureread your own land →
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