Medora, North Dakota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Medora, 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 Medora 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 Medora — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Medora — the short answer
Medora, North Dakota: USDA zone 4a, about 150 days between hard freezes, across 252 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~150
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 252 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 4a is Medora's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Medora's 150-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Medora
Each reading below is measured for Medora itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMedora runs about 150 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
MeasuredMedora sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a.
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 Medora is in
Medora sits in the Northwestern Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Medora's own centroid rather than borrowed from Billings County.
What Grows in Medora
Every plant below cleared Medora's own zone 4a and its 150-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Dakota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Medora?
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 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 4 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
What's on the federal record near Medora
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Medora. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Medora ConvenienceUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- Genos Travel CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- T ROOSEVELT NATL PK-NORTHBrownfields · 1700 ft
- 140-102-26BCANitrate · 1800 ft
- Theodore National ParkUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Medora AmocoUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- 140-102-22DCDNitrate · 0.7 mi
- Chateau DeMores Historic SiteUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- 140-102-22DBDNitrate · 0.9 mi
- Billings CountyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Burlington Northern Railroad CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- 139-102-03BACNitrate · 1.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Medora'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 Medora.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Medora
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Medora, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 44 sites within ~10 miles of Medora. 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 Medora
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 Medora average
Your land is one point inside Medora
Everything above resolves to Medora as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 252 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 Medora Average
Medora Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Medora
- ●One soil character for all of Medora
- ●Frost dates read at Medora's scale: May 7 to Oct 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Medora's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Medora
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Medora, North Dakota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Medora averages can't show:
We read public map data around Medora — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Medora average
How we know this about Medora
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 Medora’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 Medora
When does frost risk typically end in Medora?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Medora typically lands around May 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 May 28.
When is the first frost in Medora?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Medora typically arrives around Oct 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 20, so the watching starts about Sep 4 — about 150 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Medora?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Medora sees about 150 frost-free days — roughly May 7 through Oct 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 28 to Sep 20, about 115 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Medora?
The federal record around Medora shows 54 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (44), 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 Medora?
From about Sep 4 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 4 (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 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Medora's scale — its 4a band and its 150-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Medora'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 Medora’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Medora's own scale — its own ~150-day season between 28°F freezes, the 252 acres it covers and 54 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Medora's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Medora's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 7 and Oct 4 and the ~150-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 54 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Medora, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Medora's boundary and the 252 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~150-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Medora's own centroid, the Northwestern Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Medora's 252 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Billings County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Billings 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 Billings County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Medora's 252 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Medora you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 252 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 Medora-wide figureread your own land →
More in North Dakota
Growing region
Nearby growing guides