Claire City, South Dakota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Claire City, 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 Claire City 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 Claire City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Claire City — the short answer
Claire City, South Dakota: USDA zone 4b, about 173 days between hard freezes, across 117 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~173
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 117 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 4b is Claire City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Claire City's 173-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Claire City
Each reading below is measured for Claire City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredClaire City runs about 173 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredClaire City sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b.
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 Claire City is in
Claire City sits in the Northern Glaciated Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Claire City's own centroid rather than borrowed from Roberts County.
What Grows in Claire City
Every plant below cleared Claire City's own zone 4b and its 173-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Dakota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Claire City?
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 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 12 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Claire City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Claire City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BOB'S MOBIL SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 25 ft
- NORTHEAST OILUnderground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- RANDYS BODY SHOPBrownfields · 400 ft
- 128N52W25AAAB2 RNitrate · 0.6 mi
- 128N52W25AAAB RNitrate · 0.6 mi
- 128N52W 1DDDD2 RNitrate · 2.5 mi
- 128N51W 8DACA RNitrate · 2.5 mi
- 128N52W27BBBC R(SISSETON GW WELL R2-97-20)Nitrate · 3.1 mi
- 128N52W10AABA RNitrate · 3.2 mi
- 127N52W 6CCCD RNitrate · 3.5 mi
- 129N52W36DAAA RNitrate · 3.9 mi
- 128N52W 3CCCB2 R(SISSETON GW WELL R2-97-17)Nitrate · 3.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Claire City'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 Claire City.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Claire City
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Claire City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Claire City, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 92 sites within ~10 miles of Claire City. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Claire City
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 Claire City average
Your land is one point inside Claire City
Everything above resolves to Claire City as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 117 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 Claire City Average
Claire City Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Claire City
- ●One soil character for all of Claire City
- ●Frost dates read at Claire City's scale: Apr 22 to Oct 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Claire City's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Claire City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Claire City, South Dakota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Claire City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Claire City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Claire City average
How we know this about Claire City
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 Claire City’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 Claire City
When does frost risk typically end in Claire City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Claire City typically lands around Apr 22, 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 13.
When is the first frost in Claire City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Claire City typically arrives around Oct 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 28, so the watching starts about Sep 12 — about 173 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Claire City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Claire City sees about 173 frost-free days — roughly Apr 22 through Oct 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 13 to Sep 28, about 138 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Claire City?
The federal record around Claire City shows 100 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (92), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Claire City?
From about Sep 12 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 Oct 12 (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 Oct 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Claire City's scale — its 4b band and its 173-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Claire City'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 Claire City’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Claire City's own scale — its own ~173-day season between 28°F freezes, the 117 acres it covers and 100 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Claire City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Claire City's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 22 and Oct 12 and the ~173-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 100 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Claire City, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Claire City's boundary and the 117 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~173-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Claire City's own centroid, the Northern Glaciated PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Claire City's 117 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Roberts County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Roberts County
- The growing challenges every South Dakota grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom South Dakota
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Roberts County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Claire City's 117 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Claire City you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 117 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 Claire City-wide figureread your own land →