Lance Creek, Wyoming, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
The conditions favor cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Lance Creek, 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 Lance Creek 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 Lance Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lance Creek — the short answer
Lance Creek, Wyoming: USDA zone 5a, about 154 days between hard freezes, across 27K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~154
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 27K 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 5a is Lance Creek's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lance Creek's 154-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lance Creek
Each reading below is measured for Lance Creek itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLance Creek runs about 154 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
MeasuredLance Creek sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 Lance Creek is in
Lance Creek sits in the Northwestern Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Lance Creek's own centroid rather than borrowed from Niobrara County.
What Grows in Lance Creek
Every plant below cleared Lance Creek's own zone 5a and its 154-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wyoming profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lance Creek?
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 Apr 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 7 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Lance Creek
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lance Creek. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Lance Creek FieldUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- Mule Creek JunctionUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.7 mi
- 34-065-04cb 01Nitrate · 6.7 mi
- 35-064-02cc 01Nitrate · 7.7 mi
- US FAA LUSK AFSFOBrownfields · 8.5 mi
- 35-064-26cb 01Nitrate · 8.9 mi
- 35-064-13ac 01Nitrate · 9.3 mi
Measured from Lance Creek'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 Lance Creek.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lance Creek
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lance Creek
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •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.
Check your specific parcel in Lance Creek
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 Lance Creek average
Your land is one point inside Lance Creek
Everything above resolves to Lance Creek as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 27K 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 Lance Creek Average
Lance Creek Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Lance Creek
- ●One soil character for all of Lance Creek
- ●Frost dates read at Lance Creek's scale: May 6 to Oct 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lance Creek's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lance Creek
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lance Creek, Wyoming — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lance Creek averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lance Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lance Creek average
How we know this about Lance Creek
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 Lance Creek’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 Lance Creek
When does frost risk typically end in Lance Creek?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lance Creek typically lands around May 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 May 27.
When is the first frost in Lance Creek?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lance Creek typically arrives around Oct 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 23, so the watching starts about Sep 7 — about 154 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lance Creek?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lance Creek sees about 154 frost-free days — roughly May 6 through Oct 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 27 to Sep 23, about 119 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lance Creek?
The federal record around Lance Creek is light — 11 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (8), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.6 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Lance Creek?
From about Sep 7 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 7 (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 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lance Creek's scale — its 5a band and its 154-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lance Creek'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 Lance Creek’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Lance Creek's own scale — its own ~154-day season between 28°F freezes, the 26,846 acres it covers and 11 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lance Creek's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lance Creek's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 6 and Oct 7 and the ~154-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 11 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lance Creek, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lance Creek's boundary and the 26,846 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~154-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lance Creek's own centroid, the Northwestern Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lance Creek's 26,846 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Niobrara County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Niobrara 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 Niobrara County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lance Creek's 26,846 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lance Creek you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 26,846 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.6 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 Lance Creek-wide figureread your own land →
More in Wyoming
Wider growing context
What grows across WyomingLance Creek sits outside our named growing regions, so Wyoming as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides