Steele, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — 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, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Steele, 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 Steele 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 Steele — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Steele — the short answer
Steele, Missouri: USDA zone 7b, about 261 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~261
- 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 7b is Steele's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Steele's 261-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Steele
Each reading below is measured for Steele itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSteele runs about 261 days between hard freezes — 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
MeasuredSteele sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Steele is in
Steele sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Steele's own centroid rather than borrowed from Pemiscot County.
What Grows in Steele
Every plant below cleared Steele's own zone 7b and its 261-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Steele?
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 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 24 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
What's on the federal record near Steele
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Steele. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- T17N R11E 26ACC1Nitrate · 1.8 mi
- FLASH MARKET #173Underground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- FAMILY DOLLAR # 2952Brownfields · 2.1 mi
- PEMISCOT PETRLEUM COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- SOUTH PEMISCOT OIL CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- CLASSIC CARBON & RIBBONToxics Release Inventory · 2.5 mi
- GARDNER NORRIS & SON SERV STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- T16N R11E 04BAC1Nitrate · 2.8 mi
- DEERFIELD TRAVEL CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- STEELE MAINT LOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- STEELE RETAILUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- CARMACS SHELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Steele'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 Steele.
Total Sites
40
within ~10 miles of Steele
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Steele
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Steele
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Steele, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 20 sites within ~10 miles of Steele. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Steele
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 Steele average
Your land is one point inside Steele
Everything above resolves to Steele 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 Steele Average
Steele Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Steele
- ●One soil character for all of Steele
- ●Frost dates read at Steele's scale: Mar 8 to Nov 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Steele's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Steele
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Steele, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Steele averages can't show:
We read public map data around Steele — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Steele average
How we know this about Steele
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 Steele’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 Steele
When does frost risk typically end in Steele?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Steele typically lands around Mar 8, 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 29.
When is the first frost in Steele?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Steele typically arrives around Nov 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 10, so the watching starts about Oct 25 — about 261 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Steele?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Steele sees about 261 frost-free days — roughly Mar 8 through Nov 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 29 to Nov 10, about 226 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Steele?
The federal record around Steele is light — 40 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (20), the nearest Nitrate record about 1.8 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Steele?
From about Oct 25 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 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Steele's scale — its 7b band and its 261-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Steele'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 Steele’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Steele's own scale — its own ~261-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,384 acres it covers and 40 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Steele's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Steele's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 8 and Nov 24 and the ~261-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 40 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Steele, the closest Nitrate record about 1.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Steele's boundary and the 1,384 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~261-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Steele's own centroid, the Mississippi Alluvial PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Steele's 1,384 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pemiscot County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pemiscot 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 Pemiscot County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Steele's 1,384 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Steele you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,384 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 1.8 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 Steele-wide figureread your own land →