Rawlins, Wyoming, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Rawlins, 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 Rawlins 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 Rawlins — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Rawlins — the short answer
Rawlins, Wyoming: USDA zone 5a, about 140 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~140
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 5K 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 Rawlins's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rawlins's 140-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Rawlins
Each reading below is measured for Rawlins itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRawlins runs about 140 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
MeasuredRawlins 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 Rawlins is in
Rawlins sits in the Wyoming Basin — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Rawlins's own centroid rather than borrowed from Carbon County.
What Grows in Rawlins
Every plant below cleared Rawlins's own zone 5a and its 140-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wyoming profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Rawlins?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 29 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a season this compact, fast finishers and cold-hardy greens do the late work, and garlic tucked in before the freeze repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Rawlins
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Rawlins. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Rawlins Tank FarmUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- 7-Eleven Store #763Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- J. H. Kaspar Oil CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- STAN'S QUICK LUBEBrownfields · 2000 ft
- Consumers Gasoline CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- Adjacent to Skyline MotorsUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- J B ServicesUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- MAPS TOWING AND DIESEL REPAIRBrownfields · 2100 ft
- SKYLINE MOTORSBrownfields · 2100 ft
- Skyline Motors, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- 21-087-16cca01Nitrate · 2100 ft
- Hilltop ConocoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Rawlins'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 Rawlins.
Total Sites
186
within ~10 miles of Rawlins
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Rawlins
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Rawlins
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 Rawlins
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 Rawlins average
Your land is one point inside Rawlins
Everything above resolves to Rawlins as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 5K 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 city 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 Rawlins Average
Rawlins Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Rawlins
- ●One soil character for all of Rawlins
- ●Frost dates read at Rawlins's scale: May 12 to Sep 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Rawlins's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Rawlins
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Rawlins, Wyoming — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rawlins averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rawlins — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rawlins average
How we know this about Rawlins
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Rawlins’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Rawlins
When does frost risk typically end in Rawlins?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Rawlins typically lands around May 12, 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 Jun 2.
When is the first frost in Rawlins?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Rawlins typically arrives around Sep 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 15, so the watching starts about Aug 30 — about 140 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Rawlins?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Rawlins sees about 140 frost-free days — roughly May 12 through Sep 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 2 to Sep 15, about 105 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Rawlins?
The federal record around Rawlins is a meaningful one — 186 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (112), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 gardeners stretch the season in Rawlins?
With about 140 frost-free days between hard freezes, Rawlins 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 168 to 196 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 12 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Rawlins's scale — its 5a band and its 140-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rawlins'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 Rawlins’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Rawlins's own scale — its own ~140-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,279 acres it covers and 186 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Rawlins's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Rawlins's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 12 and Sep 29 and the ~140-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 186 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Rawlins, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Rawlins's boundary and the 5,279 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~140-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Rawlins's own centroid, the Wyoming BasinUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Rawlins's 5,279 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Carbon County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Carbon 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 Carbon County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Rawlins's 5,279 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Rawlins you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,279 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Rawlins-wide figureread your own land →
More in Wyoming
Wider growing context
What grows across WyomingRawlins sits outside our named growing regions, so Wyoming as a whole is its closest context here.