Pinnacle, Montana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Pinnacle, 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 Pinnacle 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 Pinnacle — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Pinnacle — the short answer
Pinnacle, Montana: USDA zone 5a, about 146 days between hard freezes, across 362 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~146
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 362 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 Pinnacle's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pinnacle's 146-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pinnacle
Each reading below is measured for Pinnacle itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPinnacle runs about 146 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
MeasuredPinnacle 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 Pinnacle is in
Pinnacle sits in the Canadian Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Pinnacle's own centroid rather than borrowed from Flathead County.
What Grows in Pinnacle
Every plant below cleared Pinnacle's own zone 5a and its 146-day season. Each card opens that plant's Montana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pinnacle?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 1 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a season this compact, fast finishers and cold-hardy greens do the late work, and garlic tucked in before the freeze repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Pinnacle
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pinnacle. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- STANTON CREEK LODGE CLOSEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- HALF WAY HOUSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- BN ESSEXUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- DENNYS UNDERPASS USTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Stanton Lake ProspectsMining · 4.7 mi
- IZAAK WALTON INNUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.7 mi
- OkedaleMining · 9.5 mi
- LippincottMining · 9.5 mi
- Great NorthernMining · 9.5 mi
Measured from Pinnacle'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 Pinnacle.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pinnacle
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Mine waste leaches heavy metals. Test for lead, arsenic and cadmium before growing food here.
Check your specific parcel in Pinnacle
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 Pinnacle average
Your land is one point inside Pinnacle
Everything above resolves to Pinnacle as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 362 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 Pinnacle Average
Pinnacle Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Pinnacle
- ●One soil character for all of Pinnacle
- ●Frost dates read at Pinnacle's scale: May 8 to Oct 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pinnacle's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pinnacle
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pinnacle, Montana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pinnacle averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pinnacle — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pinnacle average
How we know this about Pinnacle
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 Pinnacle’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 Pinnacle
When does frost risk typically end in Pinnacle?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pinnacle typically lands around May 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 May 29.
When is the first frost in Pinnacle?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pinnacle typically arrives around Oct 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 17, so the watching starts about Sep 1 — about 146 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pinnacle?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pinnacle sees about 146 frost-free days — roughly May 8 through Oct 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 29 to Sep 17, about 111 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pinnacle?
The federal record around Pinnacle is light — 9 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (5), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 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 gardeners stretch the season in Pinnacle?
With about 146 frost-free days between hard freezes, Pinnacle 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 174 to 202 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 8 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Pinnacle's scale — its 5a band and its 146-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pinnacle'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 Pinnacle’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Pinnacle's own scale — its own ~146-day season between 28°F freezes, the 362 acres it covers and 9 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pinnacle's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Pinnacle's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 8 and Oct 1 and the ~146-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 9 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pinnacle, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pinnacle's boundary and the 362 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~146-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Pinnacle's own centroid, the Canadian RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Pinnacle's 362 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Flathead County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Flathead County
- The growing challenges every Montana grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Montana
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Flathead County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pinnacle's 362 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pinnacle you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 362 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 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 Pinnacle-wide figureread your own land →
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