Snow Hill, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Snow Hill, 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 Snow Hill 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 Snow Hill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Snow Hill — the short answer
Snow Hill, North Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 256 days between hard freezes, across 997 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 14
- Greene County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 25
- Greene County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~256
- Greene County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 997 acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. No 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid, so the hard-freeze dates are Greene County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Snow Hill's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Snow Hill's 256-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Snow Hill
Each reading below is measured for Snow Hill itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsSnow Hill runs about 256 days between hard freezes (read from Greene County, the closest normal to Snow Hill) — 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
MeasuredSnow Hill sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 Snow Hill is in
Snow Hill sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Snow Hill's own centroid rather than borrowed from Greene County.
What Grows in Snow Hill
Every plant below cleared Snow Hill's own zone 8a and its 256-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Snow Hill?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 25 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Snow Hill
Survey cells within 31 miles of Snow Hill checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 58 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Snow Hill
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Snow Hill. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- STOP-N-GOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- NORTH LENOIR WATER CORPPFAS · 1400 ft
- GREENE CO REGIONAL WATER SYSTPFAS · 1400 ft
- GR-029 CAROLINA POWER CONitrate · 2200 ft
- CAPTRON INCToxics Release Inventory · 2400 ft
- GREENE COUNTY MAINTENANCE SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- GREENE COUNTY COURTHOUSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- NADA'S FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- SNOW HILL CENTRAL OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- SNOW HILL FIRE DEPARTMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- GREENE COUNTY BUS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- SNOWHILL SERVICE CTR & AUTO SALEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Snow Hill'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 Snow Hill.
Total Sites
278
within ~10 miles of Snow Hill
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Snow Hill
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Snow Hill
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Snow Hill, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 184 sites within ~10 miles of Snow Hill. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Snow Hill
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 Snow Hill average
Your land is one point inside Snow Hill
Everything above resolves to Snow Hill as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 997 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Greene County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid. 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 Snow Hill Average
Snow Hill Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Snow Hill
- ●One soil character for all of Snow Hill
- ●Frost dates read at Snow Hill's scale: Mar 14 to Nov 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Snow Hill's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Snow Hill
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Snow Hill, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Snow Hill averages can't show:
We read public map data around Snow Hill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Snow Hill average
How we know this about Snow Hill
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 Greene County’s record, because none resolves here; 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 Snow Hill
When does frost risk typically end in Snow Hill?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Snow Hill typically lands around Mar 14, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Snow Hill?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Snow Hill typically arrives around Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 11, so the watching starts about Oct 26 — about 256 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Snow Hill?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Snow Hill sees about 256 frost-free days — roughly Mar 14 through Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 4 to Nov 11, about 221 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Snow Hill?
The federal record around Snow Hill is a meaningful one — 278 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (184), 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 Snow Hill?
From about Oct 26 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 Nov 25 (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 Nov 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Snow Hill's scale — its 8a band and its 256-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Snow Hill'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 Snow Hill’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Snow Hill's own scale — the 997 acres it covers and 278 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Snow Hill's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 278 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Snow Hill, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Snow Hill's boundary and the 997 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~256-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Snow Hill's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Snow Hill checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Snow Hill has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Greene County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Snow Hill's 997 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Greene County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Greene County
- The growing challenges every North Carolina grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom North Carolina
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Greene County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Snow Hill's 997 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Snow Hill you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 997 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 Snow Hill-wide figureread your own land →