Cozad, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
The conditions favor cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Cozad, 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 Cozad 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 Cozad — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cozad — the short answer
Cozad, Nebraska: USDA zone 5b, about 183 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~183
- 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 5b is Cozad's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cozad's 183-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cozad
Each reading below is measured for Cozad itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCozad runs about 183 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
MeasuredCozad sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Cozad is in
Cozad sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Cozad's own centroid rather than borrowed from Dawson County.
What Grows in Cozad
Every plant below cleared Cozad's own zone 5b and its 183-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cozad?
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 Mar 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 19 — 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 Cozad
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cozad. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- COZAD CARDTROLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- WAYNE SMITHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- TIME SAVER #19Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- UNION PACIFIC RAILROADBrownfields · 1500 ft
- HUNT CLEANERS INCBrownfields · 2000 ft
- SANDHILLS LANDFILLBrownfields · 2100 ft
- NEBRASKA PLASTICS INCORPORATEDBrownfields · 2200 ft
- PAULSEN INCBrownfields · 2300 ft
- COZAD WAREHOUSEBrownfields · 2400 ft
- ADM ALLIANCE NUTRITION INCToxics Release Inventory · 2500 ft
- COZAD OPERATIONS CENTERBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- TENNECO AUTOMOTIVE OPERATING CO INCBrownfields · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cozad'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 Cozad.
Total Sites
58
within ~10 miles of Cozad
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cozad
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cozad
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cozad, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Cozad — CAFO (14 sites) and Nitrate (20 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.
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 Cozad
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 Cozad average
Your land is one point inside Cozad
Everything above resolves to Cozad 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 Cozad Average
Cozad Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Cozad
- ●One soil character for all of Cozad
- ●Frost dates read at Cozad's scale: Apr 19 to Oct 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cozad's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cozad
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cozad, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cozad averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cozad — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cozad average
How we know this about Cozad
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 Cozad’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 Cozad
When does frost risk typically end in Cozad?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cozad typically lands around Apr 19, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Cozad?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cozad typically arrives around Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 5, so the watching starts about Sep 19 — about 183 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cozad?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cozad sees about 183 frost-free days — roughly Apr 19 through Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 10 to Oct 5, about 148 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cozad?
The federal record around Cozad shows 58 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (20), 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 Cozad?
From about Sep 19 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 19 (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 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cozad's scale — its 5b band and its 183-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cozad'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 Cozad’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Cozad's own scale — its own ~183-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,674 acres it covers and 58 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cozad's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cozad's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 19 and Oct 19 and the ~183-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 58 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cozad, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cozad's boundary and the 1,674 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~183-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cozad's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cozad's 1,674 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Dawson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Dawson 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 Dawson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cozad's 1,674 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cozad you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,674 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 Cozad-wide figureread your own land →
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