Vernal, Utah, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Vernal, 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 Vernal 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 Vernal — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Vernal — the short answer
Vernal, Utah: USDA zone 6a, about 174 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~174
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 3K 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 6a is Vernal's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Vernal's 174-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Vernal
Each reading below is measured for Vernal itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredVernal runs about 174 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
MeasuredVernal sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Vernal is in
Vernal sits in the Colorado Plateaus — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Vernal's own centroid rather than borrowed from Uintah County.
What Grows in Vernal
Every plant below cleared Vernal's own zone 6a and its 174-day season. Each card opens that plant's Utah profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Vernal?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 29; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 17 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Vernal
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Vernal. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SALINA INVESTMENT CO. #26Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- WESTSIDE 66Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- MAVERIK #142 VERNALUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- TEXACO STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- MID-TOWN TIRE & AUTOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- B's II C-STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- TOP STOP #41Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- UINTAH SCHOOL DISTRICTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- CIRCLE K #1201Underground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- PRIDE FOOD MART VERNAL WESTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- TOP STOP # 42Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- LYNN'S TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Vernal'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 Vernal.
Total Sites
214
within ~10 miles of Vernal
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
8 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Vernal
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Vernal
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Vernal
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 Vernal average
Your land is one point inside Vernal
Everything above resolves to Vernal as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 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 Vernal Average
Vernal Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Vernal
- ●One soil character for all of Vernal
- ●Frost dates read at Vernal's scale: Apr 26 to Oct 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Vernal's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Vernal
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Vernal, Utah — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Vernal averages can't show:
We read public map data around Vernal — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Vernal average
How we know this about Vernal
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 Vernal’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 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 Vernal
When does frost risk typically end in Vernal?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Vernal typically lands around Apr 26, 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 17.
When is the first frost in Vernal?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Vernal typically arrives around Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 3, so the watching starts about Sep 17 — about 174 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Vernal?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Vernal sees about 174 frost-free days — roughly Apr 26 through Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 17 to Oct 3, about 139 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Vernal?
The federal record around Vernal is a meaningful one — 214 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (109), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Vernal?
From about Sep 17 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Vernal's scale — its 6a band and its 174-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Vernal'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 Vernal’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Vernal's own scale — its own ~174-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,959 acres it covers and 214 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Vernal's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Vernal's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 26 and Oct 17 and the ~174-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 214 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Vernal, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Vernal's boundary and the 2,959 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~174-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Vernal's own centroid, the Colorado PlateausUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Vernal's 2,959 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Uintah County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Uintah County
- The growing challenges every Utah grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Utah
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Uintah County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Vernal's 2,959 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Vernal you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,959 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Vernal-wide figureread your own land →
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