Aurora, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Aurora, 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 Aurora 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 Aurora — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Aurora — the short answer
Aurora, Nebraska: USDA zone 6a, about 195 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~195
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 2K 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 6a is Aurora's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Aurora's 195-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Aurora
Each reading below is measured for Aurora itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAurora runs about 195 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
MeasuredAurora sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Aurora is in
Aurora sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Aurora's own centroid rather than borrowed from Hamilton County.
What Grows in Aurora
Every plant below cleared Aurora's own zone 6a and its 195-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Aurora?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 22 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Aurora
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Aurora. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- AURORA PUBLIC SCHOOLSBrownfields · 1300 ft
- DEL-RAY MANUFACTURING INCBrownfields · 1500 ft
- AURORA COOPERATIVE - NORTH NH3 PLANTBrownfields · 1600 ft
- FARMERS STATE BANKUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- UNKNOWNUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- NEBRASKA DEPT OF TRANSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- AURORA PUBLIC SCHOOLS DIST 4RUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- AURORA COOP SERVICE CTRUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- AURORA COOP SERVICE CENTERBrownfields · 2500 ft
- AURORA GROUNDWATERSuperfund · 0.6 mi
- PUMP & PANTRY #7Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- INTERNATIONAL SENSOR SYSTEMSBrownfields · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Aurora'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 Aurora.
Total Sites
95
within ~10 miles of Aurora
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Aurora
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Aurora
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Aurora, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Aurora — CAFO (4 sites) and Nitrate (36 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Aurora
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 Aurora average
Your land is one point inside Aurora
Everything above resolves to Aurora as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Aurora Average
Aurora Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Aurora
- ●One soil character for all of Aurora
- ●Frost dates read at Aurora's scale: Apr 10 to Oct 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Aurora's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Aurora
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Aurora, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Aurora averages can't show:
We read public map data around Aurora — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Aurora average
How we know this about Aurora
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 Aurora’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 Aurora
When does frost risk typically end in Aurora?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Aurora typically lands around Apr 10, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Aurora?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Aurora typically arrives around Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 8, so the watching starts about Sep 22 — about 195 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Aurora?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Aurora sees about 195 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Oct 8, about 160 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Aurora?
The federal record around Aurora is a meaningful one — 95 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (36), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 I protect my plants from frost in Aurora?
From about Sep 22 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 22 (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 22. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Aurora's scale — its 6a band and its 195-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Aurora'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 Aurora’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Aurora's own scale — its own ~195-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,098 acres it covers and 95 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Aurora's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Aurora's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 10 and Oct 22 and the ~195-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 95 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Aurora, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Aurora's boundary and the 2,098 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~195-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Aurora's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Aurora's 2,098 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Hamilton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Hamilton County
- The growing challenges every Nebraska grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Nebraska
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Hamilton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Aurora's 2,098 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Aurora you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,098 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Aurora-wide figureread your own land →
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