Sophia, West Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect cabbage, blackberry, 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 Sophia, 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 Sophia 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 Sophia — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Sophia — the short answer
Sophia, West Virginia: USDA zone 6b, about 191 days between hard freezes, across 447 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~191
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 447 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 Sophia's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sophia's 191-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Sophia
Each reading below is measured for Sophia itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSophia runs about 191 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
MeasuredSophia 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 Sophia is in
Sophia sits in the Central Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Sophia's own centroid rather than borrowed from Raleigh County.
What Grows in Sophia
Every plant below cleared Sophia's own zone 6b and its 191-day season. Each card opens that plant's West Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Sophia?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 24 — 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.
Documented around Sophia
Survey cells within 31 miles of Sophia checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 54 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Sophia
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sophia. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- NEW RIVER HEALTH - SOPHIA PHARMACYBrownfields · 100 ft
- TOWN OF SOPHIAUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- PRIDDYS INCBrownfields · 450 ft
- MICROBLACK INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- VENBLACK INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- S/S LOC #29799Underground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #11484Brownfields · 550 ft
- BEAVER COAL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- CREAGER - FINCH PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- KEYSTONE NO 5 MINEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- STERLING SMOKELESSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- KEYSTONE NO 4 MINEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sophia'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 Sophia.
Total Sites
588
within ~10 miles of Sophia
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Sophia
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sophia
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Sophia
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 Sophia average
Your land is one point inside Sophia
Everything above resolves to Sophia as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 447 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 Sophia Average
Sophia Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Sophia
- ●One soil character for all of Sophia
- ●Frost dates read at Sophia's scale: Apr 16 to Oct 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sophia's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sophia
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sophia, West Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sophia averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sophia — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sophia average
How we know this about Sophia
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 Sophia’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 Sophia
When does frost risk typically end in Sophia?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sophia typically lands around Apr 16, 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 7.
When is the first frost in Sophia?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Sophia typically arrives around Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 10, so the watching starts about Sep 24 — about 191 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Sophia?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sophia sees about 191 frost-free days — roughly Apr 16 through Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 7 to Oct 10, about 156 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sophia?
The federal record around Sophia is a meaningful one — 588 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (331), the nearest Brownfields 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 Sophia?
From about Sep 24 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 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Sophia's scale — its 6b band and its 191-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sophia'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 Sophia’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Sophia's own scale — its own ~191-day season between 28°F freezes, the 447 acres it covers and 588 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sophia's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Sophia's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 16 and Oct 24 and the ~191-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 588 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sophia, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sophia's boundary and the 447 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~191-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Sophia's own centroid, the Central AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Sophia 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 Sophia's 447 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Raleigh County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Raleigh 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 Raleigh County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Sophia's 447 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sophia you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 447 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Sophia-wide figureread your own land →
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