Clairton, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Clairton, 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 Clairton 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 Clairton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Clairton — the short answer
Clairton, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 217 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~217
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 2K 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 6b is Clairton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Clairton's 217-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Clairton
Each reading below is measured for Clairton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredClairton runs about 217 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
MeasuredClairton sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Clairton is in
Clairton sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Clairton's own centroid rather than borrowed from Allegheny County.
What Grows in Clairton
Every plant below cleared Clairton's own zone 6b and its 217-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Clairton?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 7 — 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.
Documented around Clairton
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Clairton, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Clairton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Clairton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- RITE AIDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- CARROLL PONTIAC INCBrownfields · 1400 ft
- CITY OF CLAIRTONBrownfields · 1400 ft
- ATLANTIC 0363 9259Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- CLAIRTON MUNI BLDGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- CLAIRTON CITY ALLEGHENY CNTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- ROYAK SVCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- NICKOLICH GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR STORE NO 4774Brownfields · 1900 ft
- TACHOIR AUTO BODYBrownfields · 2400 ft
- UNION RR US STEEL CLAIRTON WORKSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- ESSEY GULF STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Clairton'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 Clairton.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Clairton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Clairton
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •TRI facilities report what they release. Check the wind — downwind beds catch more of it.
Check your specific parcel in Clairton
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 Clairton average
Your land is one point inside Clairton
Everything above resolves to Clairton as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Clairton Average
Clairton Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Clairton
- ●One soil character for all of Clairton
- ●Frost dates read at Clairton's scale: Apr 4 to Nov 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Clairton's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Clairton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Clairton, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Clairton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Clairton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Clairton average
How we know this about Clairton
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 Clairton’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 Clairton
When does frost risk typically end in Clairton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Clairton typically lands around Apr 4, 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 25.
When is the first frost in Clairton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Clairton typically arrives around Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 24, so the watching starts about Oct 8 — about 217 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Clairton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Clairton sees about 217 frost-free days — roughly Apr 4 through Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 25 to Oct 24, about 182 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Clairton?
The federal record around Clairton is a meaningful one — 1,614 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (822), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Clairton?
From about Oct 8 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 7 (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 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Clairton's scale — its 6b band and its 217-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Clairton'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 Clairton’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Clairton's own scale — its own ~217-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,772 acres it covers and 1,614 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Clairton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Clairton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 4 and Nov 7 and the ~217-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,614 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Clairton, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Clairton's boundary and the 1,772 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~217-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Clairton's own centroid, the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Clairtonlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Clairton's 1,772 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Allegheny County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Allegheny County
- The growing challenges every Pennsylvania grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Pennsylvania
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Allegheny County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Clairton's 1,772 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Clairton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,772 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 Clairton-wide figureread your own land →