McKean, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in McKean, 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 McKean 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 McKean — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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McKean — the short answer
McKean, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 203 days between hard freezes, across 366 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 18
- 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
- ~203
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 366 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 McKean's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against McKean's 203-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in McKean
Each reading below is measured for McKean itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMcKean runs about 203 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
MeasuredMcKean 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 McKean is in
McKean sits in the Erie Drift Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at McKean's own centroid rather than borrowed from Erie County.
What Grows in McKean
Every plant below cleared McKean's own zone 6b and its 203-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in McKean?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 18 (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. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around McKean
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from McKean, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near McKean
Closest first, within ~10 miles of McKean. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DON TAYLOR EXCAVATINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- COUNTRY FAIR 46Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- RON MATZ EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE NO 13937Brownfields · 2600 ft
- MCKEAN TWP ERIE CNTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- WALMER TRUCKING INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- SPX FLOW US LLCBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- ACCU SPEC ELECTRONICS LLCBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- ACCU SPEC ELECTRONICS LLCToxics Release Inventory · 0.9 mi
- HIGHWAY EQUIPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- JOSEPH J HUYAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- MCKEAN SUPER DUPERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from McKean'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 McKean.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of McKean
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of McKean
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around McKean, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 85 sites within ~10 miles of McKean. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in McKean
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 McKean average
Your land is one point inside McKean
Everything above resolves to McKean as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 366 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 McKean Average
McKean Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across McKean
- ●One soil character for all of McKean
- ●Frost dates read at McKean's scale: Apr 18 to Nov 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not McKean's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in McKean
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in McKean, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that McKean averages can't show:
We read public map data around McKean — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the McKean average
How we know this about McKean
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 McKean’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 McKean
When does frost risk typically end in McKean?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in McKean typically lands around Apr 18, 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 9.
When is the first frost in McKean?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in McKean 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 203 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in McKean?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, McKean sees about 203 frost-free days — roughly Apr 18 through Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 9 to Oct 24, about 168 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in McKean?
The federal record around McKean is a meaningful one — 985 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (407), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 McKean?
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 McKean's scale — its 6b band and its 203-day season. Your yard writes its own version of McKean'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 McKean’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at McKean's own scale — its own ~203-day season between 28°F freezes, the 366 acres it covers and 985 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- McKean's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- McKean's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 18 and Nov 7 and the ~203-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 985 documented contamination sites on the federal record near McKean, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- McKean's boundary and the 366 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~203-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at McKean's own centroid, the Erie Drift PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of McKeanlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so McKean's 366 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Erie County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Erie 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 Erie County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among McKean's 366 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of McKean you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 366 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 McKean-wide figureread your own land →
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