Sundance, 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.
These conditions suit cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Sundance, 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 Sundance 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 Sundance — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Sundance — the short answer
Sundance, Wyoming: USDA zone 5a, about 144 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- 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)
- Oct 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~144
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Sundance's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sundance's 144-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Sundance
Each reading below is measured for Sundance itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSundance runs about 144 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
MeasuredSundance 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 Sundance is in
Sundance sits in the Middle Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Sundance's own centroid rather than borrowed from Crook County.
What Grows in Sundance
Every plant below cleared Sundance's own zone 5a and its 144-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wyoming profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Sundance?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. 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 Oct 3 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Short seasons reward decisiveness — quick-maturing varieties late, hardy greens under cover, and next year’s garlic in the ground before it closes.
What's on the federal record near Sundance
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sundance. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Gill Oil Company, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Sundance Jr/Sr High SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- FORMER SUNDANCE AIR FORCE STATIONBrownfields · 2000 ft
- Larry EllsburyUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Colony Wyoming PlantUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- WY Department of TransportationUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Yesway 1195 (Former Fresh Start #12)Underground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- CROELL, INCBrownfields · 2500 ft
- Rolling Metal Sundance SinclairUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- ROLLING METAL SINCLAIRBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- Sundance RCAG/Warren PeakUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- 51-063-13b 01Nitrate · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sundance'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 Sundance.
Total Sites
66
within ~10 miles of Sundance
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Sundance
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sundance
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sundance, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Sundance — Superfund (3 sites) and Nitrate (32 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Sundance
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 Sundance average
Your land is one point inside Sundance
Everything above resolves to Sundance as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Sundance Average
Sundance Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Sundance
- ●One soil character for all of Sundance
- ●Frost dates read at Sundance's scale: May 12 to Oct 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sundance's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sundance
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sundance, Wyoming — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sundance averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sundance — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sundance average
How we know this about Sundance
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 Sundance’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 Sundance
When does frost risk typically end in Sundance?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sundance 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 Sundance?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Sundance 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 144 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Sundance?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sundance sees about 144 frost-free days — roughly May 12 through Oct 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 2 to Sep 19, about 109 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sundance?
The federal record around Sundance is a meaningful one — 66 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (32), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Sundance?
With about 144 frost-free days between hard freezes, Sundance 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 172 to 200 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 Sundance's scale — its 5a band and its 144-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sundance'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 Sundance’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Sundance's own scale — its own ~144-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,953 acres it covers and 66 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sundance's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Sundance's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 12 and Oct 3 and the ~144-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 66 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sundance, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sundance's boundary and the 1,953 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~144-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Sundance's own centroid, the Middle RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Sundance's 1,953 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Crook County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Crook 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 Crook County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Sundance's 1,953 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sundance you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,953 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Sundance-wide figureread your own land →
More in Wyoming
Wider growing context
What grows across WyomingSundance sits outside our named growing regions, so Wyoming as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides