Chadron, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Chadron, 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 Chadron 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 Chadron — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Chadron — the short answer
Chadron, Nebraska: USDA zone 5a, about 160 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~160
- 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 5a is Chadron's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Chadron's 160-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Chadron
Each reading below is measured for Chadron itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredChadron runs about 160 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
MeasuredChadron 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 Chadron is in
Chadron sits in the High Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Chadron's own centroid rather than borrowed from Dawes County.
What Grows in Chadron
Every plant below cleared Chadron's own zone 5a and its 160-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Chadron?
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 Apr 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 9 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near Chadron
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Chadron. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- COMMON CENTS FOOD STORESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- SAFEWAY STORE 2563Brownfields · 1600 ft
- PUMP & PANTRY #12Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- CHADRON STATE COLLEGEBrownfields · 1700 ft
- DELUXE CLEANERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- CONOCO BULK PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- CHEEMAs GAS & LIQUOR #2Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- STROsUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- CHADRON SENIOR HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- DAKOTA MINNESOTA & EASTERN RRBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- BOLLN DISTRIBUTING COUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- MAVERIK #501Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
4 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Chadron'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 Chadron.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Chadron
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •PFAS do not break down in groundwater. Irrigate from a tested source.
Check your specific parcel in Chadron
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 Chadron average
Your land is one point inside Chadron
Everything above resolves to Chadron 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 Chadron Average
Chadron Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Chadron
- ●One soil character for all of Chadron
- ●Frost dates read at Chadron's scale: May 2 to Oct 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Chadron's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Chadron
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Chadron, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Chadron averages can't show:
We read public map data around Chadron — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Chadron average
How we know this about Chadron
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 Chadron’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 Chadron
When does frost risk typically end in Chadron?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Chadron typically lands around May 2, 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 23.
When is the first frost in Chadron?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Chadron typically arrives around Oct 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 25, so the watching starts about Sep 9 — about 160 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Chadron?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Chadron sees about 160 frost-free days — roughly May 2 through Oct 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 23 to Sep 25, about 125 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Chadron?
The federal record around Chadron shows 16 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (9), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Chadron?
From about Sep 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 Oct 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Chadron's scale — its 5a band and its 160-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Chadron'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 Chadron’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Chadron's own scale — its own ~160-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,497 acres it covers and 16 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Chadron's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Chadron's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 2 and Oct 9 and the ~160-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 16 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Chadron, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Chadron's boundary and the 2,497 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~160-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Chadron's own centroid, the High PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Chadron's 2,497 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Dawes County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Dawes 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 Dawes County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Chadron's 2,497 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Chadron you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,497 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Chadron-wide figureread your own land →