Lignite, North Dakota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 3b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, cranberry, epazote, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Lignite, 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 Lignite 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 Lignite — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lignite — the short answer
Lignite, North Dakota: USDA zone 3b, about 148 days between hard freezes, across 100 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 3b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~148
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 100 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 3b is Lignite's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lignite's 148-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lignite
Each reading below is measured for Lignite itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLignite runs about 148 days between hard freezes — a short growing season.
Long-maturing crops like melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can run out of runway before the first hard freeze, ripening late or not at all.
Lead with fast-maturing varieties, and stretch the season on both ends with cold frames, low tunnels, or a greenhouse.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredLignite sits in USDA hardiness zone 3b.
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 Lignite is in
Lignite sits in the Northern Glaciated Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Lignite's own centroid rather than borrowed from Burke County.
What Grows in Lignite
Every plant below cleared Lignite's own zone 3b and its 148-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Dakota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lignite?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 1 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a season this compact, fast finishers and cold-hardy greens do the late work, and garlic tucked in before the freeze repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Lignite
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lignite. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Lignite SiteUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- 162-092-12BBBNitrate · 750 ft
- Wheatland Oil CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Lignite Oil Company IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- OXY USA IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- 163-092-21DCCNitrate · 4.1 mi
- 162-091-03DDNitrate · 4.7 mi
- 163-092-15BBNitrate · 5.4 mi
- 162-091-27ACNitrate · 5.5 mi
- Minot Air Force BaseUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.8 mi
- 163-091-07BBNitrate · 6.1 mi
- 161-091-09AANitrate · 7.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lignite'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 Lignite.
Total Sites
48
within ~10 miles of Lignite
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lignite
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lignite
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lignite, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 34 sites within ~10 miles of Lignite. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Lignite
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 Lignite average
Your land is one point inside Lignite
Everything above resolves to Lignite as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 100 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 Lignite Average
Lignite Average
- ●USDA Zones 3b, averaged across Lignite
- ●One soil character for all of Lignite
- ●Frost dates read at Lignite's scale: May 6 to Oct 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lignite's 3b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lignite
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lignite, North Dakota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lignite averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lignite — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lignite average
How we know this about Lignite
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 Lignite’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 Lignite
When does frost risk typically end in Lignite?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lignite typically lands around May 6, 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 27.
When is the first frost in Lignite?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lignite typically arrives around Oct 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 17, so the watching starts about Sep 1 — about 148 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lignite?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lignite sees about 148 frost-free days — roughly May 6 through Oct 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 27 to Sep 17, about 113 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lignite?
The federal record around Lignite is light — 48 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (34), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 gardeners stretch the season in Lignite?
With about 148 frost-free days between hard freezes, Lignite rewards the classic extension moves: floating row cover buys roughly two to four extra weeks at each shoulder — on this season that is a working window nearer 176 to 204 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 6 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Lignite's scale — its 3b band and its 148-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lignite'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 Lignite’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Lignite's own scale — its own ~148-day season between 28°F freezes, the 100 acres it covers and 48 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lignite's own USDA hardiness band, zones 3bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lignite's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 6 and Oct 1 and the ~148-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 48 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lignite, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lignite's boundary and the 100 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 3b and a ~148-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lignite's own centroid, the Northern Glaciated PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lignite's 100 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Burke County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Burke County
- The growing challenges every North Dakota grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom North Dakota
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Burke County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lignite's 100 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lignite you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 100 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Lignite-wide figureread your own land →
More in North Dakota
Wider growing context
What grows across North DakotaLignite sits outside our named growing regions, so North Dakota as a whole is its closest context here.