Powers Lake, North Dakota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
These conditions suit cabbage, cranberry, cilantro, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Powers Lake, 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 Powers Lake 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 Powers Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Powers Lake — the short answer
Powers Lake, North Dakota: USDA zone 4a, about 139 days between hard freezes, across 890 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~139
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 890 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 Powers Lake's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Powers Lake's 139-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Powers Lake
Each reading below is measured for Powers Lake itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPowers Lake runs about 139 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
MeasuredPowers Lake 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 Powers Lake is in
Powers Lake sits in the Northwestern Glaciated Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Powers Lake's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Burke County is mostly Northern Glaciated Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Powers Lake
Every plant below cleared Powers Lake's own zone 4a and its 139-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Dakota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Powers Lake?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 26 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. When the window is tight, the fall moves are quick ones — baby greens, radishes, and garlic set for next season.
What's on the federal record near Powers Lake
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Powers Lake. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 159-093-26DDA1Nitrate · 650 ft
- 159-093-26DDA2Nitrate · 650 ft
- 159-093-26DDA3Nitrate · 650 ft
- Powers Lake School District 27Underground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- Kims Service CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- Enget Brothers ImplementUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Wagon Wheel CafeUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Farmers Union Oil CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- 159-093-25CDANitrate · 2000 ft
- 159-093-36BAD1Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- 159-093-36BAD2Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- 159-093-26AADNitrate · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Powers Lake'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 Powers Lake.
Total Sites
68
within ~10 miles of Powers Lake
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
62 nitrate monitoring sites
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Powers Lake
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Powers Lake, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 62 sites within ~10 miles of Powers Lake. 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 Powers Lake
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 Powers Lake average
Your land is one point inside Powers Lake
Everything above resolves to Powers Lake as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 890 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 Powers Lake Average
Powers Lake Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Powers Lake
- ●One soil character for all of Powers Lake
- ●Frost dates read at Powers Lake's scale: May 10 to Sep 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Powers Lake's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Powers Lake
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Powers Lake, North Dakota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Powers Lake averages can't show:
We read public map data around Powers Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Powers Lake average
How we know this about Powers Lake
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 Powers Lake’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 Powers Lake
When does frost risk typically end in Powers Lake?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Powers Lake typically lands around May 10, 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 31.
When is the first frost in Powers Lake?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Powers Lake typically arrives around Sep 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 12, so the watching starts about Aug 27 — about 139 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Powers Lake?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Powers Lake sees about 139 frost-free days — roughly May 10 through Sep 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 31 to Sep 12, about 104 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Powers Lake?
The federal record around Powers Lake shows 68 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (62), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.1 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 gardeners stretch the season in Powers Lake?
With about 139 frost-free days between hard freezes, Powers Lake 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 167 to 195 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 10 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Powers Lake's scale — its 4a band and its 139-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Powers Lake'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 Powers Lake’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Powers Lake's own scale — its own ~139-day season between 28°F freezes, the 890 acres it covers and 68 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Powers Lake's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Powers Lake's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 10 and Sep 26 and the ~139-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 68 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Powers Lake, the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Powers Lake's boundary and the 890 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~139-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Powers Lake sits in the Northwestern Glaciated Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Powers Lake's 890 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 Powers Lake's 890 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Powers Lake you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 890 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Powers Lake-wide figureread your own land →
More in North Dakota
Wider growing context
What grows across North DakotaPowers Lake sits outside our named growing regions, so North Dakota as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides