Story, Wyoming, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Story, 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 Story 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 Story — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Story — the short answer
Story, Wyoming: USDA zone 5a, about 149 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~149
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town 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 Story's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Story's 149-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Story
Each reading below is measured for Story itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredStory runs about 149 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
MeasuredStory 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 Story is in
Story sits in the Middle Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Story's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Sheridan County is mostly Northwestern Great Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Story
Every plant below cleared Story's own zone 5a and its 149-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wyoming profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Story?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 3 — 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 Story
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Story. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 53-084-13bdc01Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- 53-083-08ca 01Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- Story Texaco ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- William WrightUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- Chuck Wagon StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- Tunnel InnUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- BANNER STOREBrownfields · 2.0 mi
- Banner StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- Kleo C. SamsUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- Texaco, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 5.8 mi
- Old Sheridan TerminalUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.3 mi
- PHILLIPS 66 - SHERIDAN PRODUCT TERMINALBrownfields · 6.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Story'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 Story.
Total Sites
69
within ~10 miles of Story
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Story
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Story
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Story, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 48 sites within ~10 miles of Story. 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 Story
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 Story average
Your land is one point inside Story
Everything above resolves to Story 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 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 Story Average
Story Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Story
- ●One soil character for all of Story
- ●Frost dates read at Story's scale: May 7 to Oct 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Story's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Story
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Story, Wyoming — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Story averages can't show:
We read public map data around Story — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Story average
How we know this about Story
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 Story’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 Story
When does frost risk typically end in Story?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Story typically lands around May 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Story?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Story typically arrives around Oct 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 19, so the watching starts about Sep 3 — about 149 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Story?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Story sees about 149 frost-free days — roughly May 7 through Oct 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 28 to Sep 19, about 114 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Story?
The federal record around Story is a meaningful one — 69 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (48), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.8 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 gardeners stretch the season in Story?
With about 149 frost-free days between hard freezes, Story 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 177 to 205 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 7 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Story's scale — its 5a band and its 149-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Story'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 Story’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Story's own scale — its own ~149-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,563 acres it covers and 69 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Story's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Story's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 7 and Oct 3 and the ~149-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 69 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Story, the closest Nitrate record about 0.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Story's boundary and the 4,563 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~149-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Story sits in the Middle Rockies — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Story's 4,563 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sheridan County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sheridan 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 Sheridan County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Story's 4,563 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Story you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,563 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 Story-wide figureread your own land →
More in Wyoming
Wider growing context
What grows across WyomingStory sits outside our named growing regions, so Wyoming as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides