Nome, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Among the crops suited to this profile: okra, black-eyed pea, tomato, and jalapeno. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Nome, 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 Nome 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 Nome — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Nome — the short answer
Nome, Texas: USDA zone 9a, about 315 days between hard freezes, across 746 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 29
- Jefferson County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 10
- Jefferson County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~315
- Jefferson County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 746 acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. No 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid, so the hard-freeze dates are Jefferson County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Nome's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Nome's 315-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Nome
Each reading below is measured for Nome itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsNome runs about 315 days between hard freezes (read from Jefferson County, the closest normal to Nome) — close to year-round growing.
Frost is rarely the limit here; winter plantings are as real as summer ones, and the harder question is which crops shrug off the summer heat.
Grow cool-season crops through the mild winter, and choose heat-tolerant varieties for the summer beds.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredNome sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a.
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 Nome is in
Nome sits in the Western Gulf Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Nome's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jefferson County.
What Grows in Nome
Plants matched to Nome's USDA zones 9a, ordered by how much hardiness margin each has here — the ones with room to spare at both ends of this town's band lead. Each links to its full growing profile.
Is it too late to plant in Nome?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jan 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 10 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
What's on the federal record near Nome
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Nome. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BRIGGS MOTOR COBrownfields · 1400 ft
- PT-61-61-804Nitrate · 1500 ft
- NOME MINI MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- PT-61-61-803Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- BIG DSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- FARM AIR SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- PT-61-61-806Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- PT-61-61-801Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- PT-61-61-906Nitrate · 1.8 mi
- PT-61-61-905Nitrate · 2.0 mi
- PT-61-61-904Nitrate · 2.1 mi
- PT-64-05-303Nitrate · 2.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Nome'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 Nome.
Total Sites
88
within ~10 miles of Nome
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Nome
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Nome
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Nome, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 48 sites within ~10 miles of Nome. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Nome
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 Nome average
Your land is one point inside Nome
Everything above resolves to Nome as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 746 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Jefferson County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’s own centroid. 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 Nome Average
Nome Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Nome
- ●One soil character for all of Nome
- ●Frost dates read at Nome's scale: Jan 29 to Dec 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Nome's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Nome
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Nome, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Nome averages can't show:
We read public map data around Nome — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Nome average
How we know this about Nome
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 Jefferson County’s record, because none resolves here; 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 Nome
When does frost risk typically end in Nome?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Nome typically lands around Jan 29, 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 Feb 19.
When is the first frost in Nome?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Nome typically arrives around Dec 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 26, so the watching starts about Nov 10 — about 315 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Nome?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Nome sees about 315 frost-free days — roughly Jan 29 through Dec 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 19 to Nov 26, about 280 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Nome?
The federal record around Nome is a meaningful one — 88 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (48), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.3 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 Nome?
From about Nov 10 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 Dec 10 (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 Dec 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Nome's scale — its 9a band and its 315-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Nome'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 Nome’s own scale
4 of the readings below were taken at Nome's own scale — the 746 acres it covers and 88 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Nome's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 88 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Nome, the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Nome's boundary and the 746 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- The ecoregion at Nome's own centroid, the Western Gulf Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Nome has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Jefferson County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Nome's 746 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jefferson County
- The candidate plant list — Texas's curated set, filtered to this zone band and re-ordered by how much margin each has herefrom Texas
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jefferson County
- The growing challenges every Texas grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Texas
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Jefferson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Nome's 746 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Nome you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 746 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 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 Nome-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Growing region
Nearby growing guides