Cora, Wyoming, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
The conditions favor zucchini, cranberry, cilantro, and pumpkin, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Cora, 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 Cora 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 Cora — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cora — the short answer
Cora, Wyoming: USDA zone 4a, about 77 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jun 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Aug 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~77
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town 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 4a is Cora's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cora's 77-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cora
Each reading below is measured for Cora itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCora runs about 77 days between hard freezes — a short growing season.
Long-maturing crops like melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can run out of runway before the first hard freeze, ripening late or not at all.
Lead with fast-maturing varieties, and stretch the season on both ends with cold frames, low tunnels, or a greenhouse.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredCora sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a.
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 Cora is in
Cora sits in the Wyoming Basin — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Cora's own centroid rather than borrowed from Sublette County.
What Grows in Cora
Every plant below cleared Cora's own zone 4a and its 77-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wyoming profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cora?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around May 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jun 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Aug 27 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. When the window is tight, the fall moves are quick ones — baby greens, radishes, and garlic set for next season.
What's on the federal record near Cora
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cora. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 34-110-04 01Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- Cora StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- 34-110-11bdb01Nitrate · 2.5 mi
- THE JOSEPHINE BENNING ESTATEBrownfields · 4.5 mi
- 34-110-27cdd01Nitrate · 5.3 mi
- 35-111-01ddb01Nitrate · 5.5 mi
- 35-111-11bdc01Nitrate · 5.8 mi
- Daniel Junction Food MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.2 mi
- James RanchUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.2 mi
- 33-110-04 01Nitrate · 6.5 mi
- SCHLUMBERGER JONAH FIELDBrownfields · 6.7 mi
- 36-110-29cdd01Nitrate · 6.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cora'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 Cora.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cora
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cora, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 28 sites within ~10 miles of Cora. 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 Cora
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 Cora average
Your land is one point inside Cora
Everything above resolves to Cora 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 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 Cora Average
Cora Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Cora
- ●One soil character for all of Cora
- ●Frost dates read at Cora's scale: Jun 11 to Aug 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cora's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cora
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cora, Wyoming — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cora averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cora — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cora average
How we know this about Cora
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 Cora’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 Cora
When does frost risk typically end in Cora?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cora typically lands around Jun 11, 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 Jul 2.
When is the first frost in Cora?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cora typically arrives around Aug 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Aug 13, so the watching starts about Jul 28 — about 77 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cora?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cora sees about 77 frost-free days — roughly Jun 11 through Aug 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jul 2 to Aug 13, about 42 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cora?
The federal record around Cora shows 65 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (28), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.8 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do gardeners stretch the season in Cora?
With about 77 frost-free days between hard freezes, Cora rewards the classic extension moves: floating row cover buys roughly two to four extra weeks at each shoulder — on this season that is a working window nearer 105 to 133 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the Jun 11 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Cora's scale — its 4a band and its 77-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cora'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 Cora’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Cora's own scale — its own ~77-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,195 acres it covers and 65 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cora's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cora's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Jun 11 and Aug 27 and the ~77-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 65 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cora, the closest Nitrate record about 0.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cora's boundary and the 3,195 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~77-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cora's own centroid, the Wyoming BasinUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cora's 3,195 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sublette County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sublette County
- The growing challenges every Wyoming grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Wyoming
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Sublette County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cora's 3,195 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cora you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,195 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.8 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 Cora-wide figureread your own land →
More in Wyoming
Wider growing context
What grows across WyomingCora sits outside our named growing regions, so Wyoming as a whole is its closest context here.