Newell, West Virginia, 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.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Newell, 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 Newell 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 Newell — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Newell — the short answer
Newell, West Virginia: USDA zone 6b, about 218 days between hard freezes, across 524 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~218
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 524 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 Newell's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Newell's 218-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Newell
Each reading below is measured for Newell itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNewell runs about 218 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
MeasuredNewell 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 Newell is in
Newell sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Newell's own centroid rather than borrowed from Hancock County.
What Grows in Newell
Every plant below cleared Newell's own zone 6b and its 218-day season. Each card opens that plant's West Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Newell?
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 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 11 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Newell
Spotted lanternfly documented 1 miles from Newell, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Newell
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Newell. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- STANDARD AGGREGATES INC IRON CITUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- CONGO REFINERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- CONGO TERMINALUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- POTTS MARATHONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- SIX RECYCLINGBrownfields · 1300 ft
- JACKSON'S AUTO BODY - SERVICE CENTERBrownfields · 1600 ft
- J WAYNE SIX DBA WAYNE SIX ENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- HOMER LAUGHLIN CHINA COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- NEWELL CITGOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- WELLS JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- SUPERAMERICA 5231Underground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- CE MINERALS PROCESSING INCBrownfields · 2300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Newell'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 Newell.
Total Sites
329
within ~10 miles of Newell
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
7 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Newell
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Newell
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Newell, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Newell — Superfund (7 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (33 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Newell
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 Newell average
Your land is one point inside Newell
Everything above resolves to Newell as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 524 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 Newell Average
Newell Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Newell
- ●One soil character for all of Newell
- ●Frost dates read at Newell's scale: Apr 7 to Nov 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Newell's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Newell
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Newell, West Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Newell averages can't show:
We read public map data around Newell — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Newell average
How we know this about Newell
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 Newell’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 Newell
When does frost risk typically end in Newell?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Newell typically lands around Apr 7, 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 Apr 28.
When is the first frost in Newell?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Newell typically arrives around Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 28, so the watching starts about Oct 12 — about 218 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Newell?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Newell sees about 218 frost-free days — roughly Apr 7 through Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 28 to Oct 28, about 183 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Newell?
The federal record around Newell is a meaningful one — 329 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (146), 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 Newell?
From about Oct 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 Nov 11 (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 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Newell's scale — its 6b band and its 218-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Newell'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 Newell’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Newell's own scale — its own ~218-day season between 28°F freezes, the 524 acres it covers and 329 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Newell's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Newell's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 7 and Nov 11 and the ~218-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 329 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Newell, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Newell's boundary and the 524 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~218-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Newell's own centroid, the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Newelllydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Newell's 524 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Hancock County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Hancock County
- The growing challenges every West Virginia grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom West Virginia
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Hancock County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Newell's 524 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Newell you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 524 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 Newell-wide figureread your own land →
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