McCool Junction, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in McCool Junction, 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 McCool Junction 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 McCool Junction — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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McCool Junction — the short answer
McCool Junction, Nebraska: USDA zone 5b, about 196 days between hard freezes, across 328 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 9
- 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
- ~196
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 328 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 McCool Junction's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against McCool Junction's 196-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in McCool Junction
Each reading below is measured for McCool Junction itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMcCool Junction runs about 196 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
MeasuredMcCool Junction 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 McCool Junction is in
McCool Junction sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at McCool Junction's own centroid rather than borrowed from York County.
What Grows in McCool Junction
Every plant below cleared McCool Junction's own zone 5b and its 196-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in McCool Junction?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 9 (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. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near McCool Junction
Closest first, within ~10 miles of McCool Junction. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FARMERS COOPERATIVE - MCCOOL JUNCTIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- NEVILLE CONSTRUCTION COBrownfields · 1700 ft
- 9N 3W13AD 1Nitrate · 2400 ft
- MAGELLAN PIPELINE COMPANY, L.P. - MCCOOL STATIONBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- AC FEEDYARD - MAINCAFO · 2.2 mi
- 9N 2W15CBCC1Nitrate · 3.2 mi
- POET BIOREFINING - FAIRMONTToxics Release Inventory · 3.2 mi
- AC FEEDYARDS - MAINCAFO · 3.5 mi
- 9N 2W10DA 1Nitrate · 4.2 mi
- GOOD 2 GO TRAVEL CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- YORK STOPPING CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
- 9N 2W26AA 1Nitrate · 5.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from McCool Junction'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 McCool Junction.
Total Sites
158
within ~10 miles of McCool Junction
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of McCool Junction
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of McCool Junction
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around McCool Junction, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of McCool Junction — CAFO (5 sites) and Nitrate (98 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 McCool Junction
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 McCool Junction average
Your land is one point inside McCool Junction
Everything above resolves to McCool Junction as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 328 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 McCool Junction Average
McCool Junction Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across McCool Junction
- ●One soil character for all of McCool Junction
- ●Frost dates read at McCool Junction's scale: Apr 9 to Oct 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not McCool Junction's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in McCool Junction
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in McCool Junction, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that McCool Junction averages can't show:
We read public map data around McCool Junction — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the McCool Junction average
How we know this about McCool Junction
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 McCool Junction’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 McCool Junction
When does frost risk typically end in McCool Junction?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in McCool Junction typically lands around Apr 9, 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 Apr 30.
When is the first frost in McCool Junction?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in McCool Junction 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 196 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in McCool Junction?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, McCool Junction sees about 196 frost-free days — roughly Apr 9 through Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 30 to Oct 8, about 161 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in McCool Junction?
The federal record around McCool Junction is a meaningful one — 158 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (98), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 McCool Junction?
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 McCool Junction's scale — its 5b band and its 196-day season. Your yard writes its own version of McCool Junction'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 McCool Junction’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at McCool Junction's own scale — its own ~196-day season between 28°F freezes, the 328 acres it covers and 158 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- McCool Junction's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- McCool Junction's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 9 and Oct 22 and the ~196-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 158 documented contamination sites on the federal record near McCool Junction, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- McCool Junction's boundary and the 328 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~196-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at McCool Junction's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so McCool Junction's 328 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom York County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom York 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 York County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among McCool Junction's 328 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of McCool Junction you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 328 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 McCool Junction-wide figureread your own land →
More in Nebraska
Wider growing context
What grows across NebraskaMcCool Junction sits outside our named growing regions, so Nebraska as a whole is its closest context here.