Stormstown, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Stormstown, 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 Stormstown 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 Stormstown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Stormstown — the short answer
Stormstown, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 202 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~202
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 5K 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 Stormstown's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Stormstown's 202-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Stormstown
Each reading below is measured for Stormstown itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredStormstown runs about 202 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
MeasuredStormstown 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 Stormstown is in
Stormstown sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Stormstown's own centroid rather than borrowed from Centre County.
What Grows in Stormstown
Every plant below cleared Stormstown's own zone 6b and its 202-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Stormstown?
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 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 1 — 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 Stormstown
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Stormstown, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Stormstown
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Stormstown. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TRESSLER & FEDOR EXCAVUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- CE 173Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- TELE EQUIP BLDGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- CONFER BUS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- PORT MATILDAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- LYKENS MKTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- PORT MATILDA EXXON 213Underground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- NITTANY BLDG SPECIALTIESUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- STATE COLL TRUCKSTOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- WAYNES AUTO RPRBrownfields · 2.4 mi
- CE 308Nitrate · 2.9 mi
- CE 12Nitrate · 2.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Stormstown'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 Stormstown.
Total Sites
290
within ~10 miles of Stormstown
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Stormstown
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Stormstown
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Stormstown, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 3 sites within ~10 miles of Stormstown. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Stormstown
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 Stormstown average
Your land is one point inside Stormstown
Everything above resolves to Stormstown as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 5K 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 Stormstown Average
Stormstown Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Stormstown
- ●One soil character for all of Stormstown
- ●Frost dates read at Stormstown's scale: Apr 13 to Nov 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Stormstown's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Stormstown
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Stormstown, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Stormstown averages can't show:
We read public map data around Stormstown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Stormstown average
How we know this about Stormstown
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 Stormstown’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 Stormstown
When does frost risk typically end in Stormstown?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Stormstown typically lands around Apr 13, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Stormstown?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Stormstown typically arrives around Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 18, so the watching starts about Oct 2 — about 202 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Stormstown?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Stormstown sees about 202 frost-free days — roughly Apr 13 through Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 4 to Oct 18, about 167 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Stormstown?
The federal record around Stormstown is a meaningful one — 290 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (125), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.1 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 Stormstown?
From about Oct 2 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 1 (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 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Stormstown's scale — its 6b band and its 202-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Stormstown'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 Stormstown’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Stormstown's own scale — its own ~202-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,779 acres it covers and 290 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Stormstown's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Stormstown's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 13 and Nov 1 and the ~202-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 290 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Stormstown, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Stormstown's boundary and the 4,779 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~202-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Stormstown's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Stormstownlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Stormstown's 4,779 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Centre County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Centre 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 Centre County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Stormstown's 4,779 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Stormstown you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,779 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.1 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 Stormstown-wide figureread your own land →
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