Fruit Trees for Lake Placid, Saranac Lake and the High Peaks, New York

Saranac Lake has long carried the name of the coldest town in New York, but the readings behind it come from the National Weather Service station at Adirondack Regional Airport, out by Lake Clear, in a bowl that fills with cold air on calm, clear nights. One morning when the airport hit −32°F, Lake Clear hamlet, 1.5 miles away and a little lower than the runway, read −21°F. Elevation doesn't explain that 11°F; where the cold settles does. That's most of what choosing fruit trees for Lake Placid, Saranac Lake and the High Peaks comes down to.

The map covers the Tri-Lakes and the northern High Peaks in Essex and Franklin counties, in New York's North Country: Lake Placid, Saranac Lake, the Saranac chain, Lake Clear, Paul Smiths and Gabriels, Bloomingdale, Vermontville, Ray Brook and Wilmington under Whiteface. 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 at any spot is its 30-year planning low, the bad winter night we'd plan a tree around. It runs on the cold side, so treat it as a safe number to plan for, not a promise of how often that night comes. The MFTC zone is that number in half zones, and the typical winter is an average year's coldest night, the kind of number USDA's map is built on. The spring layer shows how many degrees warmer or colder a spot runs than Saranac Lake village on a still, clear night at bloom, with the terrain pattern at full strength.

The middle of the growing ground plans for −38°F (MFTC 3a); the coldest 5 percent plans for −42°F or colder and the warmest 5 percent for −36°F or warmer. Saranac Lake village, the reference town, plans for −39°F (MFTC 3a, typical winter −26°F). The cold end is the flats northwest of the village: Upper St. Regis at −43°F, the coldest of any named place on the map, and McMasters Crossing at −42°F. The warm end is Wilmington, down at 1,014 feet, at −35°F, and the upper slopes of hills like Baker Mountain and Mount Pisgah, at −34°F to −36°F. Since the 1995-96 winter the Lake Placid station hasn't read colder than −32°F, or the airport colder than −37°F, against their own 30-year numbers of −40°F and −42°F.

Why the map looks the way it does

This is a high plateau of lakes and flats, mostly 1,500 to 1,900 feet up, under Whiteface, the McKenzie Mountains and the High Peaks. The Saranac River runs from Upper Saranac Lake (1,572 feet) through the Saranac chain and Lake Flower (1,529 feet) in Saranac Lake village, then past Bloomingdale toward Plattsburgh. Two-thirds of its drop comes in the last third of its 81 miles, so up here the valley barely falls. The West Branch Ausable takes the Chubb River and Lake Placid's outlet and leaves through Wilmington Notch for Wilmington, the lowest ground on the map.

On a still, clear night that flat country makes its own cold. Most of a pool's chill is made right where it sits as the ground loses heat to the sky, a wide, shallow basin can pool harder than a deep valley that drains, and fresh snow cuts the air off from the ground's heat. The floor within 3 miles of Saranac Lake, Lake Placid, Bloomingdale and Lake Clear plans for −41°F to −42°F. NOAA station records agree: on the year's coldest night the airport runs 6°F colder than the Lake Placid station (median of 18 years), the old Saranac Lake village station 4°F colder and Gabriels 3°F colder, though all three sit lower than the Lake Placid station's 1,888 feet. Up here, higher has mostly meant warmer on the bad nights.

The best-known cold sink isn't even the lowest ground. The airport, at 1,663 feet, sits more than 100 feet above Saranac Lake village, but in a bowl ringed by higher ground, on open, cleared land, with the station by the edge of a swamp. NWS Burlington explains it as drainage: on clear, calm nights with fresh snow, cold slides off the higher ground and pools there. It's often 10°F to 15°F colder there than in the village. In February 2008 a cooperative observer found the village's morning lows averaged 8.9°F and the airport's 0.9°F.

Above the pool sits a thermal belt. Within 3 miles of Saranac Lake, Bloomingdale and Lake Clear, the benches 100 to 700 feet up plan about 4°F warmer than the floor, and around Lake Placid about 3°F warmer. Single nights spread wider: in the February 1950 cold snap the old Saranac Lake station read −40°F, Paul Smiths −31°F and Lake Placid −25°F. The belt doesn't hold every night (arctic air arriving on a wind brings no inversion), and on the deepest nights even the higher ground goes very cold: in the January 1957 cold snap Paul Smiths read −42°F, Saranac Lake −40°F and Lake Placid −36°F.

The lakes don't help in winter. A lake shelters its shore only while it's relatively free of ice, and Mirror Lake's ice record, kept since 1903, averages ice-in around December 4 and ice-out around April 21; every station record low and big cold snap in NOAA's files here came between December 30 and February 21. Towns help a little: the NWS says the village and populated areas usually run a bit warmer than the airport, which fits what pavement and buildings do on still nights. The spring layer sharpens all of it. Slopes where the cold drains past read as much as 17°F warmer than Saranac Lake village at bloom, and the village itself sits on low ground by Lake Flower, so reading even with it is no good news for an apricot.

Saranac Lake village, Lake Flower and Mount Pisgah

Saranac Lake grew up around the 1827 dam that made Lake Flower, a 300-acre pond on the Saranac. Downtown sits about 20 feet above the local floor and plans for −39°F (MFTC 3a, typical winter −26°F). Within 3 miles the floor and the coldest tenth of the growing ground plan for −41°F, the benches −37°F and the warmest tenth −36°F. NOAA's old village station, at 1,581 feet, bottomed out at −40°F twice.

As a rule the lots by Lake Flower, Riverside Park and the river are the low ground, and climbing off them helps, more at bloom than in January. Type in your street, in Highland Park, Helen Hill or Berkeley Square or off Broadway, Forest Hill Avenue or Ampersand Avenue, for its own number. Mount Pisgah, just north of downtown, plans for −36°F at its 2,069-foot top, 540 feet above the floor, and reads 17°F warmer at bloom; Trudeau hamlet, on a 16 percent hillside 150 feet up along NY 3, plans for −40°F, no better than downtown in winter, but its bloom nights run 13°F warmer. For a village lot, plan on trees that have come through −40°F or colder, like Honeycrisp (−45°F) and Zestar!® (−40°F) apples and Meteor (−40°F) tart cherry. By the water put apples, haskap and currants, and save pears, plums and apricots for slopes like Trudeau's.

Lake Clear, the airport and the Saranac chain

Lake Clear hamlet sits south of its 940-acre lake, and the airport, which locals call the Lake Clear Airport, is 1.5 to 2 miles northeast. The hamlet plans for −40°F (MFTC 2b, typical winter −27°F) and reads 1°F colder than Saranac Lake at bloom. Within 3 miles the floor and the coldest tenth plan for −42°F, the benches −38°F and the warmest tenth −37°F.

The flats around the Saranac chain and the St. Regis lakes hold the coldest named places on the map. McMasters Crossing, 10 feet above its floor, plans for −42°F (MFTC 2b, typical winter −28°F), Upper St. Regis −43°F (MFTC 2b, typical winter −29°F), and Lake Colby hamlet, north of the lake that drains to Lower Saranac, −41°F (MFTC 2b). Then there's Harrietstown hamlet, on NY 86 east of the airport, on a bench 290 feet above the flats. It plans for −37°F (MFTC 3a, typical winter −23°F) and its bloom nights run 12°F warmer than Saranac Lake village. That's the thermal belt standing right over the pocket. Out here, plant on the rise, not the flat by the swamp. On the flats, stick to trees that have come through −45°F or colder, like Frostbite (−45°F) and Norda (−50°F) apples and Kerr (−50°F) and Trailman (−60°F) applecrabs.

Lake Placid village, Mirror Lake and North Elba

Lake Placid village sits near the south end of Lake Placid the lake, with Mirror Lake between them and Main Street along Mirror Lake's west shore. The village center sits on a 10 percent hillside about 130 feet above the low ground, and the map likes that: it plans for −39°F (MFTC 3a, typical winter −24°F) and reads 9°F warmer than Saranac Lake at bloom. Within 3 miles the floor and the coldest tenth plan for −41°F, the benches −38°F and the warmest tenth −37°F. Averyville, on a bench 220 feet up southwest of the village, plans for −37°F and reads 9°F warmer at bloom.

The big lake's shore is a different story. Whiteface hamlet, on the southwest shore, plans for −40°F (MFTC 3a) and reads 4°F warmer than Saranac Lake at bloom; Undercliff, on the northwest shore, −41°F (MFTC 2b); and Whiteface Landing −40°F (MFTC 2b) and 2°F colder at bloom. Ray Brook, on NY 86 between the villages, sits on the valley floor at 1,611 feet and plans for −39°F (MFTC 3a), 3°F warmer at bloom; NOAA's old Ray Brook station bottomed out at −35°F in January 1994 and January 2004.

With bloom nights 9°F warmer than Saranac Lake's, Lake Placid's hillside lots are a far better bet than the flats for apricots and plums that have come through −40°F or colder, like Westcot (−45°F) and Sungold (−40°F) apricots and Toka (−45°F) and Pipestone (−40°F) plums, and for Ure (−40°F) pear.

Paul Smiths, Gabriels and the St. Regis lakes

North of Lake Clear, the town of Brighton is lake country: Upper and Lower St. Regis Lakes, Spitfire Lake and Osgood Pond around Paul Smiths, and Rainbow Lake north of Gabriels. Paul Smiths, on NY 30, is river-bottom ground 40 feet above its floor and plans for −41°F (MFTC 2b, typical winter −27°F), 3°F warmer than Saranac Lake at bloom; Easy Street, a mile east, plans for −42°F. The old Paul Smiths station holds the coldest reading on file here, −46°F on January 19, 1904. Gabriels, on NY 86, plans for −41°F (MFTC 2b) and reads even at bloom. Its old NOAA station hit −42°F on December 30, 1917 and February 15, 1943, and ran a median 3°F colder than Lake Placid on the year's coldest night. Rainbow Lake, in a drainage channel north of it, plans for −40°F and reads 2°F colder at bloom.

The way out of the cold is up. Jones Hill, a little over a mile northeast of Gabriels, plans for −36°F at its 2,192-foot top, 550 feet above the flats, and Buck Hill and Blue Hill read the same, all about 17°F warmer at bloom. Skip the summit (Bob Purvis's rule: plant on a slope, not on a windswept hilltop and not down in the bottom) and type in a spot partway up. On the flats, plant from the −45°F list: Haralson (−45°F) and Mantet (−50°F) apples, Centennial (−50°F) applecrab, Honeyberry (−50°F) and Montana Black Currant (−50°F).

Bloomingdale, Vermontville and down the Saranac

Below Saranac Lake the river runs north and east to Bloomingdale, a hamlet at a five-road junction on NY 3, then on to Franklin Falls Pond. Bloomingdale sits on a toe slope 30 feet above the floor and plans for −40°F (MFTC 3a, typical winter −26°F), 1°F colder than Saranac Lake at bloom. Within 3 miles the floor plans for −41°F, the coldest tenth −42°F, the benches −38°F and the warmest tenth −37°F. Vermontville, settled by Vermonters, sits in a drainage channel and plans for −40°F, even at bloom; Onchiota plans for −40°F and reads 2°F warmer; Franklin Falls, at 1,488 feet, plans for −39°F and reads 1°F warmer. The hills are the warm ground: Murry Hill, west of Bloomingdale, plans for −39°F with bloom nights 16°F warmer, and Reardon Hill, a mile north of Franklin Falls, −36°F and 17°F warmer. In the hamlets the −40°F list fits, from Haralson apple to Red Lake currant (−40°F) and Pixwell gooseberry (−40°F); keep apricots, pears and plums for the hill slopes. Farther down the river toward Plattsburgh, the Plattsburgh and Champlain shore map covers you.

Wilmington, North Pole and the West Branch Ausable

Wilmington is the one low place on this map. The West Branch Ausable leaves North Elba through Wilmington Notch, where the cliffs rise 700 feet on one side and 1,700 feet on the other, and runs northeast through the hamlet toward Haselton and Au Sable Forks. The hamlet sits at 1,014 feet, 10 feet above the river's floor, and plans for −35°F (MFTC 3a, typical winter −21°F), the warmest of any town or hamlet on the map, and reads 1°F warmer than Saranac Lake at bloom. Within 3 miles, floor and benches alike plan for −36°F.

The benches here don't beat the floor in winter. That fits a valley that keeps falling toward Au Sable Forks, so its cold keeps moving, while the ground above climbs back toward the plateau's colder numbers. North Pole, home of Santa's Workshop, on an 18 percent hillside 590 feet above its floor, plans for −38°F, 3°F colder than the hamlet, but reads 11°F warmer than Saranac Lake at bloom. In Wilmington, height doesn't buy a better January, but it buys a lot at bloom. The old Keene Valley station, at 1,280 feet, fits the idea that the low Ausable country runs milder: on January 19, 1904, the day Paul Smiths read −46°F, it set its own record of −36°F. Northwest of Wilmington, Forestdale, on a bench 140 feet up, plans for −39°F and reads 7°F warmer at bloom.

The hamlet's −35°F gives everything rated −40°F or colder room, like Cortland (−40°F) apple, Luscious (−40°F) pear and La Crescent (−40°F) plum. Trees rated −35°F sit right at the line and are worth a try on the best ground: Lapins (−35°F) and Gold (−35°F) sweet cherries and Italian (−35°F) plum. Put apricots like Morden 604 (−45°F) on a North Pole kind of hillside.

Spring frost and bloom in the Tri-Lakes

NOAA station records for 1991 to 2020 put the median last 32°F frost on June 2 at the Lake Placid station and June 5 at the airport, and one year in ten as late as June 15 and June 17. The last 28°F, about where open blossoms of nearly every tree fruit start dying (Michigan State's numbers), comes around May 20 and May 22, and the first fall 32°F around September 17 and September 9, for 106 and 94 frost-free days. Cornell's home fruit guide says to expect flower loss wherever frost often comes after May 10, so the whole map is frost country.

On a still bloom night the cold drains off the slopes and settles on the flats, same as in January but sharper, since the FAO's frost manual puts the top of a spring frost layer usually 30 to 200 feet up. Lake Placid village reads 9°F warmer than Saranac Lake, North Pole 11°F, Harrietstown 12°F, Trudeau 13°F and the hill slopes 15°F to 17°F, while Bloomingdale, Lake Clear and Upper St. Regis read 1°F colder and Rainbow Lake and Whiteface Landing 2°F colder. NC State's fruit people say 3°F to 4°F can separate no crop from a full one. Spring cold comes hard here: on April 8, 2026 the airport read −3°F, the coldest in the lower 48 that morning, against a normal low of 23°F, and the only later subzero spring reading on Saranac Lake's record is −3°F on April 12, 1926.

So site first; the FAO calls it the single most important method of frost protection. Put apricots, plums, pears and sweet cherries on the highest-reading ground, apples a bit lower, and haskap, currants and gooseberries anywhere. Open haskap flowers take 19°F, only about 15 percent of apple blossoms need to set (Minnesota's fruit people), and most fruit, unless it's clustered like cherries and grapes, can lose half its blossoms with little effect. A hedge or tree line across a slope backs cold up into the trees above it. We saw what height is worth in Montana's 2026 bloom frost, when growers low in the Missoula valley got hit hard and those up on the benches fared much better.

What the weather records say

NOAA station records here go back to 1894. The coldest reading on file is −46°F at Paul Smiths (January 19, 1904, from a station with only 10 years of records); Gabriels hit −42°F (December 30, 1917 and February 15, 1943) and the old Saranac Lake station −40°F (February 21, 1950 and January 15, 1957). The Lake Placid station (1,888 feet), in 97 years, and the airport station, since 1999, have both bottomed out at −37°F. Other sources give colder numbers for some of these; we've gone with NOAA's station files. Even Whiteface's summit, 4,867 feet up, has a record low of about −40°F (February 4, 2023, a day with a 121 mph gust), no colder than the flats 3,000 feet below have reached.

An average winter's coldest night runs −26°F at the Lake Placid station, −29°F at the airport and the old Saranac Lake station, −31°F at Gabriels and −34°F at Paul Smiths. That kind of average is what USDA's map is built on, and it puts Lake Placid and Saranac Lake in zone 4a (−30°F to −25°F). Our planning lows put most of the map in MFTC 3a and the cold flats in 2b, a full zone or more colder.

What you can grow in the Adirondacks

Cornell's home fruit guide says most apples and pears take about −25°F, plums, sour cherries and blueberries suffer below −20°F, and sweet cherries and peaches want zones 5 and 6. With average yearly lows of −26°F to −29°F at the main stations here, that standard list is past its limit before the bad night comes. Every good pick below has come through its band's planning low. With 94 to 106 frost-free days, lean toward kinds that ripen early.

Wilmington and the warm slopes, −34°F to −37°F

Wilmington, Harrietstown hamlet, Averyville and the upper slopes of hills like Mount Pisgah and Jones Hill. Good picks: Honeycrisp (−45°F), Zestar!® (−40°F) and Northwest Greening (−40°F) apples; Ure (−40°F) and Summercrisp (−40°F) pears; Toka (−45°F) and Underwood (−40°F) plums; Westcot (−45°F) apricot on the slopes; and Meteor (−40°F) tart cherry. Worth a try: Lapins (−35°F) sweet cherry, Superior (−35°F) plum, Bartlett (−35°F) pear and Empire (−35°F) apple. Siberian C (−35°F), the hardiest peach we think is out there, ripens very late, so here it's a long shot.

Village lots, Ray Brook and the toe slopes, −38°F to −40°F

Saranac Lake, Lake Placid, Ray Brook, Bloomingdale, Vermontville, Franklin Falls, Trudeau and North Pole. Good picks: Honeycrisp (−45°F), Wealthy (−50°F) and Norland (−40°F) apples; Brookred (−50°F) plum and Cold Snap® (−40°F) pear on slopes that read warm at bloom; Evan's Bali (−45°F) tart cherry; Debbie's Gold (−50°F) apricot only on hillsides like Lake Placid village or Trudeau; Red Lake currant, Pixwell gooseberry and Boyne raspberry (all −40°F). Worth a try only against a south wall in town: the −35°F trees above.

Lake Clear, Paul Smiths, Gabriels and the cold flats, −40°F to −43°F

Lake Clear, Gabriels, Paul Smiths, Lake Colby, McMasters Crossing, Upper St. Regis and the valley floor near any village. Good picks: September Ruby (−55°F), Norda (−50°F), Parkland (−50°F), Goodland (−45°F) and Haralson (−45°F) apples; Trailman (−60°F), Rescue (−60°F), Kerr (−50°F) and Centennial (−50°F) applecrabs (if you only plant one tree, make it Kerr or Trailman); Juliet (−50°F) dwarf cherry; Honeyberry, Montana Black Currant, Aronia Berry and Serviceberry (all −50°F). Pears and plums rated −50°F, like Krasnobokaya pear and Northern Blue plum, take the winter but bloom early, so give them the nearest rise. The −40°F list is worth a try only on the better ground.

Rootstocks, site and local problems

Roots are the weak link: dormant apple roots get hurt near 10°F while the wood takes about −40°F, and snow saves them. At Ed Schultz's farm in Gallatin Gateway, Montana, Bud 118 rootstock has seen near −50°F with no damage, under snow. Cornell notes that MM.106 grows late into fall and risks winter injury, a bad habit with frost due in September. Montana State recommends a 4 to 8 percent grade where cold won't settle; Cornell's eastern New York fruit program adds gentle slopes, loamy, well-drained soil, no heavy clay and a pH test, which matters on thin, sandy, acidic Adirondack soils. If you water, taper off from mid-August so trees harden off.

Local troubles: scab and fire blight in a humid climate, deer (fence), winter swings that wake trees early and let injury build up over the years (Cornell, 2025), and heavy wet early snow like the 8 to 12 inches of November 2, 1988. Honeycrisp fruit can be hurt on the tree near 37°F, so pick before cold September nights. Most fruit trees need a pollenizer blooming alongside; our pollination maps show which ones match, and the cold hardiness calculator checks any variety against your spot.

What the old farms grew

We haven't found an orchard district, a local apple or a nursery history inside this map; farming here was hay, grain and potatoes. John Brown's farm in North Elba, about 3 miles southeast of Lake Placid village, was called the highest farm in the state, with hard, sterile soil, and in 1861 it grew grass, buckwheat, oats and potatoes. The Black farmers of Timbuctoo (1850 to 1870) fought thin soil, long snowy winters and a short season.

Questions people ask

What hardiness zone is Lake Placid, NY?

USDA's map puts Lake Placid and Saranac Lake in zone 4a (−30°F to −25°F), but that's built on an average winter's coldest night. On the bad night we plan for, Lake Placid village and Saranac Lake village are both −39°F, MFTC zone 3a. The cold flats around Lake Clear, Gabriels, Paul Smiths and Upper St. Regis are MFTC 2b, planning for −40°F to −43°F.

Why is Saranac Lake so cold?

Partly because its official readings come from the airport near Lake Clear, in a bowl where cold air pools on clear, calm nights with fresh snow, often 10°F to 15°F colder than the village. The village is cold too, sitting low on the Saranac River: it plans for −39°F, and the old village station hit −40°F twice.

When is the last frost in Saranac Lake and Lake Placid?

NOAA station records for 1991 to 2020 put the median last 32°F frost on June 5 at the Saranac Lake airport and June 2 at the Lake Placid station, and one year in ten as late as June 17 and June 15. The frost-free season runs 94 days at the airport and 106 at Lake Placid.

Can you grow apples in Lake Placid?

Yes, from the hardiest end of the list. Cornell says most apples take about −25°F, but Lake Placid plans for −39°F, so pick trees that have come through −40°F or colder, like Honeycrisp, Haralson, Zestar!® or Norland, plant them up off the flats, and lean toward kinds that ripen early.

Where are the frost pockets around Saranac Lake?

The airport bowl near Lake Clear is the famous one, and the flats around it are the coldest named places on the map: Upper St. Regis plans for −43°F, McMasters Crossing −42°F, and Gabriels, Paul Smiths and Lake Colby −41°F. At bloom, Rainbow Lake and Whiteface Landing read 2°F colder than Saranac Lake village, while Lake Placid village, Harrietstown hamlet and Trudeau read 9°F to 13°F warmer.

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.