Noel, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Noel, 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 Noel 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 Noel — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Noel — the short answer
Noel, Missouri: USDA zone 7a, about 227 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~227
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 1K 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 7a is Noel's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Noel's 227-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Noel
Each reading below is measured for Noel itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNoel runs about 227 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
MeasuredNoel sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Noel is in
Noel sits in the Ozark Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Noel's own centroid rather than borrowed from McDonald County.
What Grows in Noel
Every plant below cleared Noel's own zone 7a and its 227-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Noel?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 8 — 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 Noel
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Noel. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HUDSON FARMS, INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- 21N-33W-22 AAA 1Nitrate · 1500 ft
- JBR STORE # 1 RIVERSIDE STATIONBrownfields · 1600 ft
- LONNIES 66 SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- JBR STORE #1 RIVERSIDE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- ELK RIVER TOBACCO STORE #1Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- JACK PEW OIL CO (PHILLIPS)Underground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- T21N R33W 15CDD1Nitrate · 2400 ft
- T21N R33W 15DDD1Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- TYSON CHICKEN INC NOEL, MO.Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- TYSON CHICKEN INC NOEL, MO.Toxics Release Inventory · 0.6 mi
- HARPS FOOD STORE #704Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Noel'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 Noel.
Total Sites
122
within ~10 miles of Noel
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
5 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Noel
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Noel
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Noel, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Noel — CAFO (16 sites) and PFAS (3 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Noel
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 Noel average
Your land is one point inside Noel
Everything above resolves to Noel as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Noel Average
Noel Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Noel
- ●One soil character for all of Noel
- ●Frost dates read at Noel's scale: Mar 26 to Nov 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Noel's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Noel
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Noel, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Noel averages can't show:
We read public map data around Noel — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Noel average
How we know this about Noel
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 Noel’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 Noel
When does frost risk typically end in Noel?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Noel typically lands around Mar 26, 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 Apr 16.
When is the first frost in Noel?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Noel typically arrives around Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 25, so the watching starts about Oct 9 — about 227 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Noel?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Noel sees about 227 frost-free days — roughly Mar 26 through Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 16 to Oct 25, about 192 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Noel?
The federal record around Noel shows 122 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (50), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Noel?
From about Oct 9 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 8 (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 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Noel's scale — its 7a band and its 227-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Noel'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 Noel’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Noel's own scale — its own ~227-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,296 acres it covers and 122 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Noel's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Noel's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 26 and Nov 8 and the ~227-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 122 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Noel, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Noel's boundary and the 1,296 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~227-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Noel's own centroid, the Ozark HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Noel's 1,296 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom McDonald County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom McDonald County
- The growing challenges every Missouri grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Missouri
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom McDonald County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Noel's 1,296 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Noel you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,296 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Noel-wide figureread your own land →
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