Steele City, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Steele City, 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 Steele City 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 Steele City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Steele City — the short answer
Steele City, Nebraska: USDA zone 6a, about 200 days between hard freezes, across 149 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~200
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 149 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 Steele City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Steele City's 200-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Steele City
Each reading below is measured for Steele City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSteele City runs about 200 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredSteele City 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 Steele City is in
Steele City sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Steele City's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jefferson County.
What Grows in Steele City
Every plant below cleared Steele City's own zone 6a and its 200-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Steele City?
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 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 24 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Steele City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Steele City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 1N 4E19BD 1Nitrate · 1200 ft
- TRANSCANADA KEYSTONE PIPELINE LPBrownfields · 1600 ft
- STEELE FLATS WIND PROJECT LLCBrownfields · 3.8 mi
- SHEPHERD FEED CO.Underground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- 01S 03E 10ABB 01Nitrate · 4.5 mi
- LEI RIVER VIEW LLCCAFO · 5.4 mi
- ENDICOTT CLAY PRODUCTS CO.Toxics Release Inventory · 5.7 mi
- 1N 3E 8BBC 1Nitrate · 5.8 mi
- 01S 05E 07BBC 01Nitrate · 6.6 mi
- BEHRENDS SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.9 mi
- ROLLING HILLS PORK LLCCAFO · 7.1 mi
- KURT RUHNKE FARMBrownfields · 8.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Steele City'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 Steele City.
Total Sites
27
within ~10 miles of Steele City
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Steele City
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Steele City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Steele City, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Steele City — CAFO (5 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (3 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.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Steele City
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 Steele City average
Your land is one point inside Steele City
Everything above resolves to Steele City as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 149 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 Steele City Average
Steele City Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Steele City
- ●One soil character for all of Steele City
- ●Frost dates read at Steele City's scale: Apr 7 to Oct 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Steele City's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Steele City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Steele City, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Steele City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Steele City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Steele City average
How we know this about Steele City
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 Steele City’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 Steele City
When does frost risk typically end in Steele City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Steele City typically lands around Apr 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Steele City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Steele City typically arrives around Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 10, so the watching starts about Sep 24 — about 200 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Steele City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Steele City sees about 200 frost-free days — roughly Apr 7 through Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 28 to Oct 10, about 165 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Steele City?
The federal record around Steele City is light — 27 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (10), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.2 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 I protect my plants from frost in Steele City?
From about Sep 24 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 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Steele City's scale — its 6a band and its 200-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Steele City'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 Steele City’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Steele City's own scale — its own ~200-day season between 28°F freezes, the 149 acres it covers and 27 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Steele City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Steele City's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 7 and Oct 24 and the ~200-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 27 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Steele City, the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Steele City's boundary and the 149 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~200-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Steele City's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Steele City's 149 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jefferson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jefferson 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 Jefferson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Steele City's 149 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Steele City you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 149 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Steele City-wide figureread your own land →
More in Nebraska
Wider growing context
What grows across NebraskaSteele City sits outside our named growing regions, so Nebraska as a whole is its closest context here.