Torrington, Wyoming, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Torrington, 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 Torrington 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 Torrington — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Torrington — the short answer
Torrington, Wyoming: USDA zone 5a, about 162 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~162
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City 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 Torrington's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Torrington's 162-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Torrington
Each reading below is measured for Torrington itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredTorrington runs about 162 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
MeasuredTorrington 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 Torrington is in
Torrington sits in the High Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Torrington's own centroid rather than borrowed from Goshen County.
What Grows in Torrington
Every plant below cleared Torrington's own zone 5a and its 162-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wyoming profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Torrington?
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 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 9 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Torrington
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Torrington. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 24-061-10bda01Nitrate · 550 ft
- 24-061-10dad01Nitrate · 1000 ft
- Goshen County Care CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Torrington High SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Rankin Lawn and GardenUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- 24-061-10caa01Nitrate · 1700 ft
- 24-061-10dbc01Nitrate · 1900 ft
- 24-061-10caa02Nitrate · 2100 ft
- Loaf 'N Jug #190Underground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- 21ST CENTURY EQUIPMENTBrownfields · 2300 ft
- CROELL, INC.Brownfields · 2300 ft
- PANHANDLE COOPERATIVE ASSOCIATIONBrownfields · 2300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Torrington'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 Torrington.
Total Sites
340
within ~10 miles of Torrington
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Torrington
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Torrington
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Torrington, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Torrington — Nitrate (236 sites) and CAFO (7 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Torrington
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 Torrington average
Your land is one point inside Torrington
Everything above resolves to Torrington 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 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 Torrington Average
Torrington Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Torrington
- ●One soil character for all of Torrington
- ●Frost dates read at Torrington's scale: Apr 30 to Oct 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Torrington's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Torrington
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Torrington, Wyoming — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Torrington averages can't show:
We read public map data around Torrington — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Torrington average
How we know this about Torrington
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 Torrington’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 Torrington
When does frost risk typically end in Torrington?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Torrington typically lands around Apr 30, 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 21.
When is the first frost in Torrington?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Torrington typically arrives around Oct 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 25, so the watching starts about Sep 9 — about 162 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Torrington?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Torrington sees about 162 frost-free days — roughly Apr 30 through Oct 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 21 to Sep 25, about 127 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Torrington?
The federal record around Torrington is a meaningful one — 340 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (236), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.1 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 I protect my plants from frost in Torrington?
From about Sep 9 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Torrington's scale — its 5a band and its 162-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Torrington'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 Torrington’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Torrington's own scale — its own ~162-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,424 acres it covers and 340 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Torrington's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Torrington's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 30 and Oct 9 and the ~162-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 340 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Torrington, the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Torrington's boundary and the 2,424 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~162-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Torrington's own centroid, the High PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Torrington's 2,424 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Goshen County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Goshen 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 Goshen County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Torrington's 2,424 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Torrington you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,424 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 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 Torrington-wide figureread your own land →
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