What USDA hardiness zone is White County, Arkansas?

Every ZIP code in White County, Arkansas is USDA hardiness zone 8a, from the USDA 2023 Plant Hardiness Zone Map.

When is the last spring frost in White County, Arkansas?

The median last spring freeze runs March 11 – April 4 across the 4 NOAA weather stations serving White County, Arkansas, from NOAA 1991-2020 Climate Normals. Half of years freeze later than the median.

Arkansas

Planting zones in White County, Arkansas

Every ZIP code in this county is USDA zone 8a — so unlike most of the places people look up, there is one right answer here and it holds wherever you are in the county.

USDA zone 8a The same in all 15 ZIP codes

ZIP codes 15 15 have a NOAA station within range

Weather stations 4 NOAA 1991–2020 normals, across 1,034 sq mi

Your ZIP code

Get the exact answer for your address

Everything above describes White County, Arkansas as a whole. Hardiness zones and freeze dates are published per ZIP code, so yours is exact — enter it and this page will tell you your zone, which NOAA station it comes from and how far away that station is.

White County does not have one planting answer

Its own weather stations disagree about 12 of the 32 crops in this table right now, so any single list would be wrong for part of the county. That is not a gap in the data — it is what the data says.

Shortest season: 209 days
CABOT, AR US (USC00031102)
Longest season: 247 days
DES ARC, AR US (USC00031968)

38 days of growing season separate those two stations, and both serve ZIP codes in White County. The ZIP lookup above answers for one address instead of averaging a place that has no average.

Why the hardiness zone does not settle this

A USDA zone is a winter-minimum statistic. It was never a growing-season one, and it does not behave like one: within a single zone the growing season runs a median 54 days wider at the 10th–90th percentile, and annual growing degree days vary by 2.02×.

The zones also overlap rather than stack — 30% of zone 6b freezes before the median zone 6a station. The zone tells you what survives your winter; the station tells you what finishes before your autumn.

The whole dataset behind that →

All 4 stations agreeAt least one station

Every one of the 4 NOAA stations serving this county counts April 4 – October 31 as growing season (210 days). Widening to any single station gives March 11 – November 14 (248 days).

That is a 38-day difference inside one county — which is why this page gives ranges rather than a single planting date. The ZIP lookup above resolves it to one station.

Your freeze dates

Last spring freeze March 11 – April 4

First fall freeze October 31 – November 14

Across the 4 NOAA stations serving this county. These are medians — half of years freeze later than the date shown — so treat the later end of each range as the cautious one.

The growing season runs 209–247 days depending which station you are nearest, as published by NOAA rather than computed from the dates above. Summer highs average 89.4–91.6 °F in June–August. That is past the point where tomato and pepper pollen fails and cool-season greens bolt, so in this county heat decides as much as frost does. Summer rain over the same months runs 9.0–11.9" across those 4 stations, against the rough inch a week — about 13 inches over the same 92 days — that a vegetable garden is usually reckoned to want. The middle station covers about 82% of it, so expect to make up the rest. The inches are NOAA's published normals; the inch a week is a rule of thumb, and it takes no account of a 91 °F summer afternoon drying the soil faster than a cool one.

Every ZIP code in White County

Zones are published per ZIP code, not per county, so this is the exact answer rather than the county's average. The station column is the nearest one to that ZIP code's centroid and how far away it is — the same figure the tools use, shown here so you can see which ZIP codes are well covered and which are reaching.

ZIP code	USDA zone	Nearest NOAA station	Distance
72010	8a	Searcy, AR	18.2 km
72012	8a	Cabot, AR	14.8 km
72045	8a	Cabot, AR	14.0 km
72052	8a	Searcy, AR	15.0 km
72060	8a	Des Arc, AR	12.9 km
72068	8a	Searcy, AR	13.8 km
72081	8a	Searcy, AR	13.3 km
72082	8a	Searcy, AR	5.4 km
72085	8a	Searcy, AR	14.9 km
72102	8a	Searcy, AR	17.3 km
72121	8a	Greers Ferry Dam, AR	20.7 km
72136	8a	Searcy, AR	28.6 km
72137	8a	Greers Ferry Dam, AR	20.9 km
72143	8a	Searcy, AR	4.9 km
72178	8a	Searcy, AR	11.8 km

ZIP-code positions are area centroids, so a large rural ZIP code's listed distance is measured from the middle of its area rather than from any particular address in it.

When to start seeds in White County

Every date below is anchored on the last spring freeze at each station and reported as a range across all 4 of them, because no one station speaks for the county.

Crop	Job	When	Offset
🧅 Green Onions	Start indoors	January 14 – February 7	8 wk before
🌶️ Peppers	Start indoors	January 14 – February 7	8 wk before
🥦 Broccoli	Start indoors	January 28 – February 21	6 wk before
🥬 Cabbage	Start indoors	January 28 – February 21	6 wk before
🥬 Collards	Start indoors	January 28 – February 21	6 wk before
🥬 Kale	Start indoors	January 28 – February 21	6 wk before
🥬 Leaf Lettuce	Start indoors	January 28 – February 21	6 wk before
🫛 Peas	Direct sow	January 28 – February 21	6 wk before
🥬 Spinach	Direct sow	January 28 – February 21	6 wk before
🍠 Sweet Potato	Start indoors	January 28 – February 21	6 wk before
🍅 Tomatoes	Start indoors	January 28 – February 21	6 wk before
🥬 Bok Choy	Start indoors	February 4 – February 28	5 wk before
🥬 Kohlrabi	Start indoors	February 4 – February 28	5 wk before
🥬 Swiss Chard	Start indoors	February 4 – February 28	5 wk before
🥬 Arugula	Direct sow	February 11 – March 7	4 wk before
🥬 Baby Salad Greens	Direct sow	February 11 – March 7	4 wk before
🥕 Beets	Direct sow	February 11 – March 7	4 wk before
🧅 Green Onions	Direct sow	February 11 – March 7	4 wk before
🥬 Mustard Greens	Direct sow	February 11 – March 7	4 wk before
🌶️ Okra	Start indoors	February 11 – March 7	4 wk before
🌱 Radishes	Direct sow	February 11 – March 7	4 wk before
🥔 Turnips	Direct sow	February 11 – March 7	4 wk before
🥬 Cabbage	Set out	February 18 – March 14	3 wk before
🥕 Carrots	Direct sow	February 18 – March 14	3 wk before
🥬 Collards	Direct sow	February 18 – March 14	3 wk before
🥬 Collards	Set out	February 18 – March 14	3 wk before
🥒 Cucumbers	Start indoors	February 18 – March 14	3 wk before
🧅 Green Onions	Set out	February 18 – March 14	3 wk before
🥬 Kale	Direct sow	February 18 – March 14	3 wk before
🥬 Kale	Set out	February 18 – March 14	3 wk before
🥬 Kohlrabi	Direct sow	February 18 – March 14	3 wk before
🥬 Kohlrabi	Set out	February 18 – March 14	3 wk before
🥬 Leaf Lettuce	Direct sow	February 18 – March 14	3 wk before
🎃 Pumpkins	Start indoors	February 18 – March 14	3 wk before
🎃 Summer Squash	Start indoors	February 18 – March 14	3 wk before
🎃 Winter Squash	Start indoors	February 18 – March 14	3 wk before
🥒 Zucchini	Start indoors	February 18 – March 14	3 wk before
🥬 Bok Choy	Direct sow	February 25 – March 21	2 wk before
🥬 Bok Choy	Set out	February 25 – March 21	2 wk before
🥦 Broccoli	Set out	February 25 – March 21	2 wk before
🌿 Cilantro	Direct sow	February 25 – March 21	2 wk before
🥬 Leaf Lettuce	Set out	February 25 – March 21	2 wk before
🥬 Swiss Chard	Direct sow	February 25 – March 21	2 wk before
🥬 Swiss Chard	Set out	February 25 – March 21	2 wk before
🌿 Dill	Direct sow	March 4 – March 28	1 wk before
🫘 Bush Beans	Direct sow	March 18 – April 11	1 wk after
🥒 Cucumbers	Set out	March 18 – April 11	1 wk after
🎃 Pumpkins	Direct sow	March 18 – April 11	1 wk after
🎃 Pumpkins	Set out	March 18 – April 11	1 wk after
🎃 Summer Squash	Direct sow	March 18 – April 11	1 wk after
🎃 Summer Squash	Set out	March 18 – April 11	1 wk after
🌽 Sweet Corn	Direct sow	March 18 – April 11	1 wk after
🍅 Tomatoes	Set out	March 18 – April 11	1 wk after
🎃 Winter Squash	Direct sow	March 18 – April 11	1 wk after
🎃 Winter Squash	Set out	March 18 – April 11	1 wk after
🥒 Zucchini	Direct sow	March 18 – April 11	1 wk after
🥒 Zucchini	Set out	March 18 – April 11	1 wk after
🥒 Cucumbers	Direct sow	March 25 – April 18	2 wk after
🌶️ Okra	Direct sow	March 25 – April 18	2 wk after
🌶️ Okra	Set out	March 25 – April 18	2 wk after
🌶️ Peppers	Set out	March 25 – April 18	2 wk after
🫘 Southern Peas	Direct sow	March 25 – April 18	2 wk after
🍠 Sweet Potato	Set out	March 25 – April 18	2 wk after

Offsets are published guidance; the dates they land on are computed from measured NOAA normals. The seed-starting tool does this for your own ZIP code and counts the days.

What lives through a zone 8a winter

Of 74 perennial edibles, 57 come through a zone 8a winter — and 8 fail here for being too warm rather than too cold, needing more winter chill than this county gets or more heat than they tolerate. Among the ones that work: Apple, Aronia, Elderberry, Summer Raspberry, Asparagus, Horseradish, Rhubarb, Sunchoke.

Hardiness ranges are a judgement, published by growers rather than measured; the zone they are compared against is measured. On a warm-end verdict, check with your local extension service — a coastal zone 8 and an inland zone 8 are not the same summer.

Cautious — shortens the seasonMedian across stationsOptimistic

Last spring freeze: Plan to April 20 to be careful. Median March 11 – April 4 across 4 stations; February 23 is the optimistic end.
First fall freeze: Plan to October 18 to be careful. Median October 31 – November 14 across 4 stations; December 2 is the optimistic end.

NOAA publishes these as probabilities, not averages — the middle figure is a median, so half of years fall either side of it. The cautious end is the 10% tail: in roughly nine years in ten the freeze falls on the safe side of it.

The 4 stations behind these numbers

All 4 NOAA stations whose normals this page quotes, spanning about 60 km north to south. Every one is named with its identifier in the station list below — this page does not single one out, because no one station speaks for a whole county.

A relative sketch, not a map with a projection: longitude is adjusted for latitude so the shape is not stretched, and there is no basemap. For the one station nearest a specific address, with its real distance, use the ZIP lookup above.

These are the stations this county's ZIP codes actually cite as nearest — not a claim that each one sits inside its boundary, since a rural ZIP legitimately reaches over it. Every figure above comes from them, and each is named so you can check it.

Station	NOAA ID	Last spring freeze	First fall freeze	Season
Cabot, AR	USC00031102	April 4	October 31	209 days
Des Arc, AR	USC00031968	March 11	November 14	247 days
Greers Ferry Dam, AR	USC00032978	March 31	November 6	222 days
Searcy, AR	USC00036506	March 27	November 8	228 days

These are medians, not averages — NOAA publishes freeze dates as a probability distribution, and half of years freeze later than the date shown.

Your own ZIP

Work out your own dates

This page describes a whole county. Every tool below answers for one ZIP code, which is the grain the underlying data is published at.

Other places to compare

White County sits in Arkansas. That page carries the whole state's zone spread, its metro areas, and every other county in it with a page here.

More of Arkansas

Counties with the same zones — 8a

Matched on the exact zone set, not a dominant zone, so the winter answer on these pages really is the same one as here.

Gear

If you want to act on this

Each link opens an Amazon search rather than a product we picked. We have not tested these and do not rank them — the search is the honest version, and you choose.

Shade clothSummer highs here average 91 °F, at or above the 90 °F point where lettuce and spinach bolt and tomato pollen fails.
Row cover and frost clothThe season here closes at the first fall freeze dated above — a cover buys back some of those days at the end.
MulchFor the perennials nearest their cold limit in zone 8a, where an insulated crown is what decides whether they come back.

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. That costs you nothing extra, and it buys no influence over anything on this site: the dates come from NOAA normals and the zones from the USDA, and no product affects either.

Sources

Where these numbers come from

Hardiness zones are the USDA 2023 Plant Hardiness Zone Map, published per ZIP code by PRISM at Oregon State. Freeze dates and growing-season lengths are NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, taken per station and cited above by name and NOAA ID.

County boundaries come from the Census ZCTA-to-county relation, which is what places each ZIP code — and which treats parishes, boroughs and census areas as county equivalents. No station is chosen to represent this county: every range above is taken across all of them and the count is stated, because picking one would be a judgement dressed as a measurement.