Northfork, West Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
The conditions favor cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Northfork, 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 Northfork 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 Northfork — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Northfork — the short answer
Northfork, West Virginia: USDA zone 7a, about 209 days between hard freezes, across 617 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~209
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 617 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 7a is Northfork's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Northfork's 209-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Northfork
Each reading below is measured for Northfork itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNorthfork runs about 209 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
MeasuredNorthfork sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Northfork is in
Northfork sits in the Central Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Northfork's own centroid rather than borrowed from McDowell County.
What Grows in Northfork
Every plant below cleared Northfork's own zone 7a and its 209-day season. Each card opens that plant's West Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Northfork?
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 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 31 — 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 Northfork
Survey cells within 31 miles of Northfork checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 39 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Northfork
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Northfork. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TUG RIVER ASSOCIATION DBA BLACK DIAMOND PHARMACYBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- ESSO - NORTHFORK REALTY COUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- ELLER'S QUICK STOP LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- BLUESTONE COAL CORPORATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- BLUESTONE COAL CORP #37 - SHOP YARDBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- Mcd-0072Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- Mcd-0070Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- BLUESTONE INDUSTRIES TRUCK SHOPBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- KEYSTONE PLANT #1Toxics Release Inventory · 1.3 mi
- KEYSTONE NO 1 FACILITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- ELKHORN VALLEY GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- APPALACHIAN LEASINGBrownfields · 1.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Northfork'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 Northfork.
Total Sites
181
within ~10 miles of Northfork
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Northfork
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Northfork
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 Northfork
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 Northfork average
Your land is one point inside Northfork
Everything above resolves to Northfork as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 617 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 Northfork Average
Northfork Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Northfork
- ●One soil character for all of Northfork
- ●Frost dates read at Northfork's scale: Apr 5 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Northfork's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Northfork
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Northfork, West Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Northfork averages can't show:
We read public map data around Northfork — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Northfork average
How we know this about Northfork
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 Northfork’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 Northfork
When does frost risk typically end in Northfork?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Northfork typically lands around Apr 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Northfork?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Northfork typically arrives around Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 17, so the watching starts about Oct 1 — about 209 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Northfork?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Northfork sees about 209 frost-free days — roughly Apr 5 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 26 to Oct 17, about 174 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Northfork?
The federal record around Northfork is a meaningful one — 181 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (102), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.6 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 Northfork?
From about Oct 1 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 31 (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 31. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Northfork's scale — its 7a band and its 209-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Northfork'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 Northfork’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Northfork's own scale — its own ~209-day season between 28°F freezes, the 617 acres it covers and 181 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Northfork's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Northfork's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 5 and Oct 31 and the ~209-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 181 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Northfork, the closest Brownfields record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Northfork's boundary and the 617 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~209-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Northfork's own centroid, the Central AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Northfork checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Northfork's 617 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom McDowell County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom McDowell 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 McDowell County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Northfork's 617 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Northfork you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 617 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.6 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 Northfork-wide figureread your own land →
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