Raysal, 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.
Expect cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Raysal, 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 Raysal 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 Raysal — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Raysal — the short answer
Raysal, West Virginia: USDA zone 7a, about 207 days between hard freezes, across 787 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~207
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 787 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 Raysal's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Raysal's 207-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Raysal
Each reading below is measured for Raysal itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRaysal runs about 207 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
MeasuredRaysal 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 Raysal is in
Raysal sits in the Central Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Raysal's own centroid rather than borrowed from McDowell County.
What Grows in Raysal
Every plant below cleared Raysal's own zone 7a and its 207-day season. Each card opens that plant's West Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Raysal?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 30 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Raysal
Survey cells within 31 miles of Raysal checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 48 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Raysal
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Raysal. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BRYANTS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Mcd-0058Nitrate · 2600 ft
- ENGLISH EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- BILL'S QUICK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- FORMER S/S #29493Underground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- MULLINS AUTO REPAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- D & T CHEVROLET SALES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- CARL LEE TRUCKINGBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- D & D SERVICE CENTER & CONV MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- Mcd-0063Nitrate · 1.7 mi
- ROWE REPAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- BRADSHAW CO - 49072Underground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Raysal'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 Raysal.
Total Sites
162
within ~10 miles of Raysal
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Raysal
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Raysal
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Raysal, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 68 sites within ~10 miles of Raysal. 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 Raysal
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 Raysal average
Your land is one point inside Raysal
Everything above resolves to Raysal as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 787 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 Raysal Average
Raysal Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Raysal
- ●One soil character for all of Raysal
- ●Frost dates read at Raysal's scale: Apr 6 to Oct 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Raysal's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Raysal
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Raysal, West Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Raysal averages can't show:
We read public map data around Raysal — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Raysal average
How we know this about Raysal
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 Raysal’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 Raysal
When does frost risk typically end in Raysal?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Raysal typically lands around Apr 6, 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 27.
When is the first frost in Raysal?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Raysal typically arrives around Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 16, so the watching starts about Sep 30 — about 207 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Raysal?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Raysal sees about 207 frost-free days — roughly Apr 6 through Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 27 to Oct 16, about 172 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Raysal?
The federal record around Raysal is a meaningful one — 162 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (74), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Raysal?
From about Sep 30 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 30 (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 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Raysal's scale — its 7a band and its 207-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Raysal'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 Raysal’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Raysal's own scale — its own ~207-day season between 28°F freezes, the 787 acres it covers and 162 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Raysal's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Raysal's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 6 and Oct 30 and the ~207-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 162 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Raysal, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Raysal's boundary and the 787 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~207-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Raysal's own centroid, the Central AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Raysal 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 Raysal's 787 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 Raysal's 787 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Raysal you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 787 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Raysal-wide figureread your own land →
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