Sunray, Oklahoma, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Sunray, 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 Sunray 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 Sunray — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Sunray — the short answer
Sunray, Oklahoma: USDA zone 8a, about 251 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~251
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 8a is Sunray's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sunray's 251-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Sunray
Each reading below is measured for Sunray itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSunray runs about 251 days between hard freezes — 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
MeasuredSunray 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 Sunray is in
Sunray sits in the Cross Timbers — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Sunray's own centroid rather than borrowed from Stephens County.
What Grows in Sunray
Every plant below cleared Sunray's own zone 8a and its 251-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oklahoma profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Sunray?
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 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 18 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Sunray
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sunray. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Meridian Kwik MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Mary's One StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Yank's Quick LubeUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Tomlinson SalesUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- W-W PAUL SCALESBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- Comanche TexacoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- Diamond ShamrockUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- P's SuperetteUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- Sewer Okabt (S. Of Duncan)Underground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- Unregistered RWUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- Crescent Oil Co #12Underground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- City Of ComancheUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sunray'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 Sunray.
Total Sites
171
within ~10 miles of Sunray
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Sunray
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sunray
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sunray, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 133 sites within ~10 miles of Sunray. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Sunray
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 Sunray average
Your land is one point inside Sunray
Everything above resolves to Sunray as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 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 Sunray Average
Sunray Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Sunray
- ●One soil character for all of Sunray
- ●Frost dates read at Sunray's scale: Mar 12 to Nov 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sunray's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sunray
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sunray, Oklahoma — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sunray averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sunray — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sunray average
How we know this about Sunray
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 Sunray’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 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 Sunray
When does frost risk typically end in Sunray?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sunray typically lands around Mar 12, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Sunray?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Sunray typically arrives around Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 4, so the watching starts about Oct 19 — about 251 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Sunray?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sunray sees about 251 frost-free days — roughly Mar 12 through Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 2 to Nov 4, about 216 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sunray?
The federal record around Sunray is a meaningful one — 171 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (133), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Sunray?
From about Oct 19 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Sunray's scale — its 8a band and its 251-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sunray'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 Sunray’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Sunray's own scale — its own ~251-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,119 acres it covers and 171 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sunray's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Sunray's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 12 and Nov 18 and the ~251-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 171 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sunray, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sunray's boundary and the 1,119 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~251-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Sunray's own centroid, the Cross TimbersUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Sunray's 1,119 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Stephens County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Stephens County
- The growing challenges every Oklahoma grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Oklahoma
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Stephens County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Sunray's 1,119 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sunray you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,119 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Sunray-wide figureread your own land →
More in Oklahoma
Wider growing context
What grows across OklahomaSunray sits outside our named growing regions, so Oklahoma as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides