Donora, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Donora, 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 Donora 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 Donora — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Donora — the short answer
Donora, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 216 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~216
- 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 6b is Donora's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Donora's 216-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Donora
Each reading below is measured for Donora itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDonora runs about 216 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
MeasuredDonora 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 Donora is in
Donora sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Donora's own centroid rather than borrowed from Washington County.
What Grows in Donora
Every plant below cleared Donora's own zone 6b and its 216-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Donora?
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 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 8 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Donora
Spotted lanternfly documented 1 miles from Donora, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Donora
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Donora. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WASTE MGMT LAUREL VALLEYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- GRANDVIEW PUMP STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- BABCOCK & WILCOX CONSTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- KAYS CLEANERS/DONORABrownfields · 1800 ft
- DONORA TOWERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- BADZIK PRINTING SVCBrownfields · 2100 ft
- TECH MET INCBrownfields · 2200 ft
- TECH MET INCToxics Release Inventory · 2200 ft
- UNI MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- RICHS AMOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- NAYLORS BODY SHOPBrownfields · 2200 ft
- TOMS AUTO CTRUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Donora'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 Donora.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Donora
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Donora
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 Donora
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 Donora average
Your land is one point inside Donora
Everything above resolves to Donora 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 Donora Average
Donora Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Donora
- ●One soil character for all of Donora
- ●Frost dates read at Donora's scale: Apr 6 to Nov 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Donora's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Donora
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Donora, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Donora averages can't show:
We read public map data around Donora — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Donora average
How we know this about Donora
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 Donora’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 Donora
When does frost risk typically end in Donora?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Donora typically lands around Apr 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 Apr 27.
When is the first frost in Donora?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Donora typically arrives around Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 25, so the watching starts about Oct 9 — about 216 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Donora?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Donora sees about 216 frost-free days — roughly Apr 6 through Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 27 to Oct 25, about 181 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Donora?
The federal record around Donora is a meaningful one — 697 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (383), 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 Donora?
From about Oct 9 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 8 (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 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Donora's scale — its 6b band and its 216-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Donora'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 Donora’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Donora's own scale — its own ~216-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,215 acres it covers and 697 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Donora's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Donora's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 6 and Nov 8 and the ~216-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 697 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Donora, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Donora's boundary and the 1,215 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~216-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Donora's own centroid, the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Donoralydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Donora's 1,215 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Washington County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Washington 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 Washington County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Donora's 1,215 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Donora you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,215 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 Donora-wide figureread your own land →
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