Fruit Trees for Champaign, Urbana, Decatur, Mahomet and Monticello, Illinois

On January 5, 1999, NOAA's Champaign 3S station, 3 miles south of town, hit −25°F, tying the coldest reading in its 136 years on file. In Decatur, 42 miles southwest, the water plant station bottomed out at −15°F in the same cold snap. That 10°F spread is a good place to start on fruit trees for Champaign, Urbana, Decatur, Mahomet and Monticello. This map covers East Central Illinois from Rantoul and Farmer City south through Champaign-Urbana to Tuscola, and west down the Sangamon to Decatur, Mount Zion and Clinton Lake. Almost everything we sell clears the winter here; what decides the crop is where frost settles on a still April night.

Type your address in the box on the map to get the number for your own place, and the list of what we sell that has come through it.

How to read this map

The big number is the 30-year planning low, the number our cold hardiness calculator uses, adjusted for the lay of the land: a safe night to plan around, not a record or a forecast. MFTC zone puts it in half zones. Typical winter is an ordinary year's coldest night, the kind of average USDA uses. The spring layer shows how much warmer or colder a spot runs than downtown Champaign, our reference town, on a clear, calm night at bloom.

Downtown Champaign plans for −23°F, MFTC zone 4b, with a typical winter of −8°F. The middle of the map plans for −22°F, and nine tenths of the growing ground falls between −25°F and −19°F. The warm end is Decatur and the country south and east of it, zone 5a: downtown Decatur and Mount Zion plan for −19°F, and Cerro Gordo −18°F, the warmest named place we checked. The cold end is the open fields around Farmer City and Mansfield at −25°F, with Weedman, 3 miles northeast of Farmer City, at −26°F, zone 4a.

Everything we sell has come through −25°F or colder except Bing cherry, Santa Rosa plum, four nectarines, three apples (Baldwin, Kandil Sinap, St. Edmund's Pippin), Javid's Iranian almond and the Chicago Hardy fig. So use the map to pick the spot, and the spring layer to pick what goes on it.

Why the map looks the way it does

This is the Grand Prairie: glacial deposits up to 300 ft deep, left by ice out of the Lake Michigan basin, and ground so flat that much of Champaign County was wetland until ditching began in the 1870s. From the top of the Champaign Moraine (about 855 ft, a few miles east of Lake of the Woods) down to Lake Decatur at 613 ft, the map holds about 240 ft of relief. On nine tenths of the growing ground the fine-scale terrain term moves the planning low less than 1°F either way, so the winter map mostly follows the station records, and the terrain shows up in the spring layer.

The records run milder to the southwest: in the winters on record since 1995 the average year's coldest night has been about −5°F at both Decatur stations, −8°F at Champaign 3S and Willard Airport, and −10°F at the Champaign 9 SW station. It isn't elevation: the Decatur water plant sits 83 ft below Champaign 3S, and low ground usually runs colder. We haven't found a study that explains it, though Champaign 3S gets about 21 inches of snow a year to the water plant's 14 inches, and air over snow runs colder. The gap is fairly new, too. The Decatur water plant read colder than Champaign 3S in the big snaps from 1977 to 1989 and milder in every one from 1994 on, and our numbers start with the 1995-96 winter.

Town against open country is the other pattern. The Champaign 9 SW station, 9 miles southwest of town, has run a median 3°F colder than Tuscola's over 23 winters, though it sits 49 ft higher. The Illinois State Climatologist notes rural spots can run a few degrees colder than town on frost nights, and a 1999 study comparing a long rural soil record with Champaign-Urbana's found a town heat island of about 1.1°F. The map gives built-up ground up to 2.5°F, and the small towns show it: Bondville, Wapella and Rantoul plan for −20°F to −21°F, against about −23°F for the open floor within 3 miles of each.

The real relief is along the rivers. On a clear, calm night cold air slides off the higher ground and pools on the floor while the slopes above stay milder. The Sangamon runs east into Champaign County, cuts south through a gap in the Champaign Moraine at Mahomet, and swings west past Monticello to Lake Decatur. Within 3 miles of Mahomet the floor plans for −24°F and the slopes −21°F; around Decatur it's −21°F against −18°F; and at Tunbridge, the biggest split of any town we checked, −24°F against −21°F.

Up on the flat, cold air has nowhere much to go. Champaign-Urbana sits on a three-way divide: Boneyard Creek drains downtown, central campus and north Urbana to the Saline Branch of the Salt Fork, the Embarras starts on the south campus and in Meadowbrook Park, and the Kaskaskia starts in farm ditches west of town. On grades that gentle most of the cold is made in place as the ground loses heat to a clear sky, so a few tens of feet count; a 1936 Michigan study found orchard ridges only 25 to 30 ft above the plain could be nearly as frost-free as high hills. It all needs calm air. Orchard inversions usually hold only under 3 to 5 mph of wind, by Washington State's research, and a windy freeze hits high and low ground alike.

Champaign, Urbana and Savoy

In Champaign-Urbana (C-U, or Chambana), downtown Champaign, at 736 ft along Neil Street, plans for −23°F, and so does downtown Urbana. The colder ground is the low strip through the middle. Campustown, around Green Street at 720 ft and right at the local floor, plans for −24°F and reads 3°F colder than downtown Champaign on a spring frost night. West Urbana, also at 720 ft, plans for −23°F and reads 4°F colder. The map marks Midtown, between downtown and campus, as a line where cold air drains, and it reads 3°F colder in spring, as do Kenwood and Holiday Park on the west side.

The milder ground is east and southeast Urbana, 30 ft to 50 ft above the low ground around it. Southeast Urbana, at 746 ft and 2 miles from Campustown, plans for −20°F with a typical winter of −6°F, the warmest of any C-U neighborhood we checked. Lierman, AmVets II and Middle Urbana plan for −21°F. Spring is patchier: Lierman reads about even with downtown Champaign, Middle Urbana 3°F colder. On the Champaign side, Frat Park reads 1°F warmer than downtown, the best of any named place in C-U. Savoy, at 736 ft and 40 ft above the floor, plans for −21°F against −23°F for the open ground around it.

Plant by the block. The Campustown and West Urbana low ground is for apples and bush fruit: Liberty apple, Evan's Bali tart cherry, honeyberries and Red Lake currant, which fruited well for us after its flower buds saw about 22°F. Give Lierman and Frat Park lots the early bloomers: Contender peach, Tomcot apricot, Stella sweet cherry, and Superior plum with Toka, a good pollenizer for Superior. In Southeast Urbana, Bing (rated −20°F) is worth a try against a south wall.

Mahomet, Lake of the Woods and the upper Sangamon

Mahomet, settled on the river banks in 1832 as the first community in what's now Champaign County, sits where the Sangamon cuts through the Champaign Moraine. That ridge stands about 150 ft above the till plain to its south, its crest runs through Lake of the Woods Forest Preserve, and the valley there is narrow (never more than about 1,300 ft wide) and only weakly cut. Mahomet, at 727 ft and 40 ft above the floor, plans for −23°F, typical winter −9°F, and reads about even with downtown Champaign in spring. Within 3 miles the floor plans for −24°F and the slopes −21°F. Lake of the Woods, 50 ft up at 751 ft, plans for −23°F and also reads about even.

Downstream toward Monticello the river runs along the moraine's face, and on its east side only short creeks 2 to 3 miles long come down off it; creeks and draws like those carry cold down on still nights. Centerville, on low ground at 656 ft about 7 miles southwest of Mahomet, plans for −25°F and reads 4°F colder in spring, while White Heath, on a 6 percent toe slope 40 ft above the floor, plans for −22°F and reads about even. Bondville, west of Champaign, plans for −21°F but reads 4°F colder in spring.

Mahomet's slopes suit Harlayne apricot, Blushingstar peach (it came through −25°F at our place on January 13, 2024 without damage) and Rainier cherry. The native fruit in the Sangamon timber here included wild crab, black cherry, elderberry and hawthorn, and our American elderberry fits that same river ground.

Monticello, Allerton Park and Piatt County

Monticello, the Piatt County seat, sits low in the Sangamon valley at 661 ft, 10 ft above the floor. It plans for −23°F, typical winter −9°F, but reads 4°F colder than downtown Champaign on a still bloom night, one of the coldest spring readings of any town on the map. Allerton Park, just southwest, carries the same layout in its trees: about 600 acres of river bottomland forest (silver maple, cottonwood, sycamore) below about 400 acres of upland oak and hickory. In town, put apricots, peaches, sweet cherries and pears on your highest ground (the warmest tenth within 3 miles plans for −21°F) and leave the low ground to apples, haskap and currants.

Bement and Cisco plan for −21°F. Hammond, 16 miles south of Monticello, shows the two layers pulling apart: it plans for a mild −19°F, zone 5a, because the south end runs milder in winter, but it's a river bottom and reads 4°F colder in spring. Cerro Gordo, at 744 ft and 60 ft above the ground around it, plans for −18°F with a typical winter of −4°F.

Decatur, Lake Decatur, Mount Zion and Forsyth

Decatur, in Macon County (the Heart of Illinois), is the mild end of the map. Downtown, at 680 ft on a 4 percent slope 70 ft above the low ground along the Sangamon and Lake Decatur, plans for −19°F, MFTC zone 5a, with a typical winter of −4°F, and reads 3°F warmer than downtown Champaign on a still bloom night, the best spring reading of any named place on the map. Within 3 miles the low ground plans for −21°F and the slopes −18°F. Lake Decatur, built from 1920 to 1922, averages only about 8 ft deep. Shallow water gives up its heat early in winter, and we haven't found any record of when the lake freezes or what it does to its shore.

Mount Zion, about 7 miles southeast at 694 ft and 40 ft above the floor, plans for −19°F, typical winter −5°F, and reads 1°F warmer in spring; it drains north to the Sangamon by Finley Creek and Big Creek, with Spitler Woods' old-growth oak and hickory on its east edge. Sangamon, the hamlet 5 miles east-northeast of Decatur on a toe slope 40 ft up, plans for −19°F and reads 1°F warmer. Long Creek plans for −19°F and Forsyth, 6 miles north, −20°F, both zone 5a, and both read 2°F colder in spring.

Anywhere the map shows zone 5a, the plants rated −20°F have come through the planning low. Put Bing cherry, Santa Rosa plum and Flavortop nectarine on the ground that reads well in spring (Decatur's slopes, Mount Zion, Sangamon), with Hardired nectarine and Risingstar peach. Baldwin apple and Javid's Iranian almond fit here too. Farther down the Sangamon, the Springfield and Sangamon County map covers Springfield.

Clinton, Clinton Lake and the west edge

Clinton, the DeWitt County seat, sits at 744 ft, 30 ft above the floor, plans for −23°F, typical winter −8°F, and reads about even with downtown Champaign in spring. The old Clinton 1SSW station recorded −25°F on January 15, 1927. Clinton Lake, 4,900 acres with arms up Salt Creek and its North Fork, was built in the 1970s as the cooling lake for the Clinton nuclear plant. The plant's warm discharge keeps part of it open all winter while the North Fork arm and the Salt Creek coves freeze hard enough for ice fishing in cold spells. We haven't found any measurement of what that open water does to the air on shore, so plan from the map's number.

West of town, Tunbridge sits low at 638 ft, plans for −24°F and reads 4°F colder than downtown Champaign in spring, while Rowell, about 3 miles south-southeast at 762 ft and 90 ft above the floor, plans for −20°F and reads 1°F warmer. That's a 5°F spread at bloom, and Rowell's kind of ground is where apricots and peaches go. Wapella, 5 miles north of Clinton, plans for −21°F. Clinton holds an Apple and Pork Festival every year.

Rantoul, Fisher, Farmer City and the open north

The north end holds the coldest ground on the map. Between Urbana and Rantoul the Salt Fork drained a vast upland marsh, now ditched. Rantoul, home of Chanute Field from 1917 and Chanute Air Force Base until 1993, sits on that old marsh plain at 746 ft and plans for −20°F, typical winter −6°F, but the open floor within 3 miles plans for −23°F and the coldest tenth of the ground around it −25°F. Fisher, 10 miles west at the floor, plans for −24°F and reads 4°F colder than downtown Champaign in spring.

The coldest corner is farther west around Farmer City and Mansfield, both at −25°F, and Weedman, 3 miles northeast of Farmer City, plans for −26°F, the coldest named place we checked. It isn't low ground; Farmer City sits at 725 ft. The nearest station, the old Farmer City 3W, read −25°F on January 5, 1999, and its own 30-year number works out to −24°F. We haven't found a published reason this corner runs cold, beyond the general rule that open farm ground runs colder than town. Spring is kinder: Farmer City reads only 1°F colder than downtown Champaign.

Build an orchard up here around plants rated −30°F or colder: Contender and Blushingstar peaches on whatever rise you have, Lapins sweet cherry, Stanley plum, Summercrisp pear and Haralson apple. The −25°F group (Redstar peach, Stella cherry) suits Farmer City itself. North of the map, the Peoria, Bloomington and Normal map takes over.

Tolono, Tuscola, Villa Grove and the Embarras country

From its start in C-U the Embarras heads south through Douglas County past Villa Grove and Camargo. The towns south of C-U mostly run milder in winter: Tolono, 40 ft above the floor, plans for −20°F against −22°F for the open ground around it, Pesotum −20°F, Philo and Sadorus −22°F. The cold spot is Parkville, 5 miles west-southwest of Pesotum, right at the floor at 666 ft: it plans for −23°F and reads 6°F colder than downtown Champaign in spring, the coldest spring reading of any named place on the map. East of Urbana, Sidney sits at 656 ft, about 70 ft below downtown Urbana, and plans for −25°F.

Tuscola, the Douglas County seat, sits at 656 ft and plans for −20°F, typical winter −6°F, and reads 3°F colder than downtown Champaign in spring. The Tuscola station's −26°F on December 22, 1989 ties the old Philo station (January 7, 1912) for the coldest reading on file at any station inside the map. The named places right around town (Northgate, Parkview, Hillcrest, Meadowview, Southland Acres) sit right at the floor, plan for −20°F to −21°F and read 3°F to 4°F colder in spring.

Villa Grove, 8.5 miles northeast of Tuscola, sits where Jordan Slough meets the Embarras, and more than a third of town went underwater in the 1950 flood. On the map it's a river bottom at 654 ft that plans for −23°F and reads 3°F colder than downtown Champaign in spring. In bottoms like that, plant apples and bush fruit and give stone fruit and pears the highest corner of the lot.

Spring frost and bloom in Central Illinois

The spring layer follows the same drainage as the winter pools, only more sharply, and among named places it spans 9°F. The best readings of any named places are downtown Decatur (3°F warmer than downtown Champaign), then Frat Park, Mount Zion, Rowell, Sangamon and Bulldog Crossing (1°F warmer). The worst are Parkville (6°F colder), Empire northwest of Farmer City (5°F colder), and a long list at 4°F colder, including Monticello, Hammond, Centerville, Tunbridge, Fisher, Bondville and West Urbana. The warm spots sit 20 ft to 90 ft above the nearest low ground; the cold ones nearly all sit at the floor or within 10 ft of it.

NOAA's 1991 to 2020 frost dates split the same way. Medians, listed as last 32°F in spring, last 28°F, first 32°F in fall, frost-free days, and the late year (1 in 10) for the last 32°F:

• Decatur water plant (639 ft): April 13, April 4, October 18, 187 days; late year April 22.
• Champaign 3S (722 ft): April 14, April 3, October 18, 183 days; late year April 29.
• Tuscola (651 ft): April 14, April 2, October 17, 180 days; late year April 29.
• Decatur airport (673 ft): April 18, April 5, October 19, 180 days; late year May 10.
• Willard Airport, south of Savoy (743 ft): April 17, April 9, October 13, 179 days; late year May 4.
• Rantoul, old Chanute station: April 16, April 8, October 13, 176 days; late year May 8.
• Champaign 9 SW (700 ft): April 20, April 12, October 11, 169 days; late year May 9.

We don't have station frost dates for Mahomet, Monticello or Clinton; go by the nearest station and your spot's spring reading.

Spring 2019 showed how it goes wrong. Ryan Pankau, Illinois Extension's horticulture educator in Champaign County, reported four straight days of single-digit lows in early March, then up-and-down weather that killed flower buds: some local growers lost their whole peach crop, and the University of Illinois Arboretum's Cherry Tree Allée had almost no blossoms, while apples mostly came through, though some on exposed sites had few or no flowers. Open blossoms of nearly every tree fruit start dying near 28°F, but only about 15 percent of apple blossoms need to set for a crop, and haskap flowers take 19°F wide open.

Site comes first; the FAO's frost manual calls it the most important frost protection there is. Put apricots, peaches, sweet cherries, plums and pears on your highest ground and apples, haskap and currants lower, and don't let a hedge or tree line across the low side dam the cold back into the trees. Through bloom, mow the grass under 2 inches and water a day or two before a frost night. Frost cloth of 0.5 to 1.5 oz per square yard gains about 4°F to 8°F, by Alabama Extension's figures.

What the weather records say

Champaign 3S, with NOAA records back to 1890, has hit −25°F on February 9, 1899, February 13, 1905, January 19, 1994 and January 5, 1999, and the Decatur water plant's record is −25°F, from that same February 13, 1905 cold wave. The January 30, 2019 cold wave, the one that set Illinois' state record of −38°F, brought −21°F to Paxton, just north of the map, −17°F to Champaign 3S and −16°F to Willard Airport and both Decatur stations.

Our planning low sits colder than anything the three newer stations have recorded, on purpose. Willard Airport's coldest in 28 years is −18°F (January 16, 2009), where the map plans for −20°F; the Decatur airport's is −16°F (January 30, 2019), where it plans for −18°F; Champaign 9 SW's is −19°F (February 24, 2015), where it plans for −23°F. Champaign 3S's −25°F in 1999 shows why the margin is there.

When USDA's 2012 zone map came out, the State Climatologist noted it nearly put Champaign-Urbana in zone 6, though C-U had still dropped to −20°F or colder a few times in the previous 30 years. USDA's zones are built on the average of each winter's coldest night, and NOAA station records show the worst night in about 30 winters runs a median 13°F below that average, which is why downtown Champaign's typical winter is −8°F and its planning low −23°F.

What you can grow here

Decatur, Mount Zion, Cerro Gordo and the zone 5a ground, −18°F to −20°F

Everything rated −20°F or colder: Bing cherry, Santa Rosa plum, Flavortop and Mericrest nectarines, Kandil Sinap apple, plus the −25°F group: Glohaven peach, SnowCzar almond, Rhodes heartnut and Montana Trial persimmon.

Champaign-Urbana, Mahomet, Monticello, Clinton, Rantoul and Tuscola, −20°F to −24°F

Plants rated −25°F or colder: Redstar and Glowingstar peaches, Hardired nectarine, Stella cherry, Purvis Hardy English walnut, and everything hardier: Goldrich apricot, Lapins sweet cherry, Italian plum, Seckel and Harrow Sweet pears, Montana Trial pawpaw and Trader mulberry, the hardiest mulberry we know of. Bing is worth a try on town lots planning −21°F or warmer.

Farmer City, Mansfield, Fisher, Sidney and the coldest fields, −24°F to −26°F

Plants rated −30°F or colder: Contender and Veteran peaches and Tomcot apricot on any rise, Gold sweet cherry, Toka plum, D'Anjou and Ure pears, Northern Spy and Honeycrisp apples and Marquette grape. The −25°F plants are worth a try in the fields that plan for −26°F.

The bottoms that read 4°F to 6°F colder in spring

In Monticello, Centerville, Hammond, Tunbridge, Fisher, West Urbana and Parkville, winter isn't the issue; bloom is. Plant Enterprise and Pristine apples, Montmorency tart cherry, honeyberries, Montana Black currant, Hinnomaki Red gooseberry and aronia, and keep pears, apricots, peaches and sweet cherries higher.

Roots, water and site

Roots are a fruit tree's weak link, and snow is what normally protects them; Bud 118 apple rootstock has seen near −50°F at Ed Schultz's farm in Gallatin Gateway, Montana, with no damage, under snow. Snow is light here, so mulch the root zone and don't let the soil go into winter dry, but taper the water from mid-August so trees harden off (we do that in zone 4 and colder). Test drainage before planting (dig 2 ft, fill, let it drain, refill: under 10 hours is well drained), since much of this was wet prairie before the tile went in. Apple scab is the disease to plan around; Midwest springs favor it. Our pollination maps show which varieties bloom together to pollenize each other.

Fruit history here

Illinois Industrial University opened in Champaign-Urbana in 1868, and apple breeding there goes back to C.S. Crandall as early as 1907. In 1945 J. Ralph Shay at Purdue and L. Fredric Hough at Illinois started a program to breed scab-resistant apples, and Rutgers joined after Hough moved there in 1948, and the original seedlings of Prima, Jonafree and Dayton were planted at Urbana. William's Pride started from a seedling at Lafayette, Indiana, and Enterprise and Pristine came out of the same program. Robert Allerton's Brick Walled Garden at Allerton Park, laid out in 1902, still has espaliered apples, and Curtis Orchard in southwest Champaign has sold apples since 1980 and grew 26 varieties as of 2025.

Questions people ask

What hardiness zone is Champaign-Urbana?

Downtown Champaign and downtown Urbana plan for −23°F, MFTC zone 4b, with a typical winter of −8°F, and neighborhoods run from −24°F in Campustown to −20°F in Southeast Urbana. In 2012 the State Climatologist noted USDA's new map nearly put C-U in zone 6; USDA's map is based on an average winter, ours on the bad night we plan for.

What zone is Decatur, Illinois?

Downtown Decatur plans for −19°F, MFTC zone 5a, with a typical winter of −4°F, and Mount Zion and Forsyth are 5a too. The low ground along the Sangamon and Lake Decatur plans for about −21°F. USDA's zones read milder because they're based on an average winter, not the bad night we plan for.

When is the last frost in Champaign and Decatur?

By NOAA station records for 1991 to 2020, the median last 32°F in spring is April 14 at Champaign 3S, April 17 at Willard Airport and April 20 at Champaign 9 SW; in Decatur it's April 13 at the water plant and April 18 at the airport. In a late year (1 in 10) it comes as late as April 22 at the Decatur water plant and May 10 at the Decatur airport.

Can you grow peaches around Champaign and Decatur?

Yes. Contender and Blushingstar, rated −30°F, clear every planning low on this map, and Redstar and Risingstar, rated −25°F, clear all but the coldest fields. The risk is bloom (in 2019 some local growers lost their whole peach crop), so plant peaches where the spring reading is good, like the slopes at Decatur or Mount Zion.

Where are the frost pockets around Champaign, Urbana and Decatur?

On a still spring night the coldest named places are Parkville, west of Pesotum (6°F colder than downtown Champaign), Empire near Farmer City (5°F colder), and a group 4°F colder that includes Monticello, Hammond, Tunbridge, Fisher and West Urbana. In winter the coldest ground is around Farmer City, Mansfield and Weedman, at −25°F to −26°F.

Which apples were bred in Urbana?

The original seedlings of Prima, Jonafree and Dayton were planted at Urbana in the Purdue, Rutgers and Illinois scab-resistance program. Enterprise (rated −35°F), Pristine (−30°F) and William's Pride (−35°F) came out of the same program, and all three clear the planning low everywhere on this map.

Warmer spots, colder spots

Here's the number to plan for at named places on the map, warmest first. Each one is the 1-in-30-year low for that spot: the cold hardiness calculator's number from the same weather stations, sharpened by our microclimate model for the ground right there. Zone is our MFTC zone, set by that one bad night, not by an average.

The weather stations behind it

These are the long-record stations in and around this map, with each one's own numbers since the winter of 1995-96. The last column is this map's 30-year number right at the station, which won't match the station exactly: it's a blend of the stations around it, the way the calculator works everywhere.

Source: NOAA records through ACIS, winters 1995-96 through 2025-26. What the "carried forward," "gaps filled" and AWOS rows mean is explained in how our microclimate maps work.