Sentinel Butte, 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 Sentinel Butte, 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 Sentinel Butte 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 Sentinel Butte — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Sentinel Butte — the short answer
Sentinel Butte, North Dakota: USDA zone 4a, about 151 days between hard freezes, across 659 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- 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 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~151
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 659 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 Sentinel Butte's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sentinel Butte's 151-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Sentinel Butte
Each reading below is measured for Sentinel Butte itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSentinel Butte runs about 151 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
MeasuredSentinel Butte 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 Sentinel Butte is in
Sentinel Butte sits in the Northwestern Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Sentinel Butte's own centroid rather than borrowed from Golden Valley County.
What Grows in Sentinel Butte
Every plant below cleared Sentinel Butte's own zone 4a and its 151-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Dakota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Sentinel Butte?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 4 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Sentinel Butte
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sentinel Butte. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 140-104-20CABNitrate · 0.6 mi
- Sentinel Butte ExxonUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- A T and T CommunicationsUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- 140-104-15BBDNitrate · 2.9 mi
- 140-105-14ABANitrate · 3.0 mi
- 139-105-13BBCNitrate · 4.6 mi
- 139-105-04AACNitrate · 4.6 mi
- 140-104-12ADBNitrate · 5.6 mi
- 141-104-31AAANitrate · 5.8 mi
- 139-104-22CDDNitrate · 6.4 mi
- Golden Valley County Airport AutUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.6 mi
- North Dakota State Dept of TransportationUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sentinel Butte'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 Sentinel Butte.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Sentinel Butte
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sentinel Butte
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sentinel Butte, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 46 sites within ~10 miles of Sentinel Butte. 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 Sentinel Butte
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 Sentinel Butte average
Your land is one point inside Sentinel Butte
Everything above resolves to Sentinel Butte as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 659 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 Sentinel Butte Average
Sentinel Butte Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Sentinel Butte
- ●One soil character for all of Sentinel Butte
- ●Frost dates read at Sentinel Butte's scale: May 6 to Oct 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sentinel Butte's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sentinel Butte
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sentinel Butte, North Dakota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sentinel Butte averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sentinel Butte — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sentinel Butte average
How we know this about Sentinel Butte
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 Sentinel Butte’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 Sentinel Butte
When does frost risk typically end in Sentinel Butte?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sentinel Butte 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 Sentinel Butte?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Sentinel Butte 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 151 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Sentinel Butte?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sentinel Butte sees about 151 frost-free days — roughly May 6 through Oct 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 27 to Sep 20, about 116 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sentinel Butte?
The federal record around Sentinel Butte shows 64 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (46), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.6 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 Sentinel Butte?
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 Sentinel Butte's scale — its 4a band and its 151-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sentinel Butte'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 Sentinel Butte’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Sentinel Butte's own scale — its own ~151-day season between 28°F freezes, the 659 acres it covers and 64 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sentinel Butte's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Sentinel Butte's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 6 and Oct 4 and the ~151-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 64 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sentinel Butte, the closest Nitrate record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sentinel Butte's boundary and the 659 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~151-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Sentinel Butte's own centroid, the Northwestern Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Sentinel Butte's 659 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Golden Valley County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Golden Valley 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 Golden Valley County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Sentinel Butte's 659 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sentinel Butte you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 659 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.6 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 Sentinel Butte-wide figureread your own land →
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