Fruit Trees for Newcastle, Wyoming and the Western Black Hills

On December 22, 1989, the Upton station read −41°F. Newcastle, about 27 miles southeast at the foot of the Black Hills, read −27°F that same morning. That 14°F split is the place to start with fruit trees for Newcastle, Wyoming and the western Black Hills: the open plains of Weston County fill with arctic air, and the first rise of the hills, where Newcastle sits, has come in as warm as or warmer than Upton in every one of the big outbreaks in the NOAA station records.

This map covers Newcastle and Hill View Heights, Osage, Clay Spur and Jerome toward Upton, the Cambria Canyon and the hills east to the South Dakota line. 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 number on the map is the 30-year planning low, the number to plan for at that spot. It's the same number our cold hardiness calculator uses, and it leans to the safe side. The MFTC zone is that number in half zones. "Typical winter" is an average year's coldest night, the kind of number USDA's map is built on, which is why USDA zones read warmer than ours. The spring layer shows how many degrees warmer or colder each spot runs than Newcastle on a still, clear night at bloom.

The middle of the growing ground here plans for −37°F (MFTC 3a). The warm end is the foot of the hills: Hill View Heights plans for −34°F (MFTC 3b), Frannie Peak east of town −32°F, and the warmest twentieth of the ground −33°F or better. The cold end is the open plains to the northwest, where Jerome and Clay Spur plan for −42°F (MFTC 2b). Newcastle itself, the reference town, plans for −35°F (MFTC 3a, just on the cold side of the line), with a typical winter around −19°F.

Why the map looks the way it does

Newcastle sits at the southwest edge of the Black Hills: rolling prairie and small badlands to the southwest, and to the northeast a dissected plateau of flat-topped divides and steep-sided canyons topping out near 6,400 feet on Mount Pisgah. The country around town drains to Beaver Creek, which bottoms out at about 3,860 feet in the southwest and runs on to the Cheyenne River: Stockade Beaver Creek out of a broad valley to the northeast (cut in the same Spearfish red shale and gypsum as the Red Valley, the Race Track that rings the Black Hills), Salt Creek along the north, and the Cambria canyon north of town. On a clear, calm night cold air follows those creeks downhill.

The biggest thing on this map is the split between the open plains and the foot of the hills. In every big outbreak from 1963 to 1990, the Upton station, just off the map's northwest corner, ran 6°F to 14°F colder than Newcastle. Upton's average yearly low is −26°F against Newcastle's −20°F. Upton is lower (4,239 feet to Newcastle's 4,327) and sits on flat, open plains where cold air has no slope to drain away on, so on a clear night it keeps cooling in place. Upton also gets more snow, 46.4 inches a year to Newcastle's 38.9, and air over snow runs colder because the snow cuts it off from the ground's heat.

Newcastle sits on the first rise of the hills, and when dense arctic air spreads across the plains the hills can stick up out of it. In the January 1943 outbreak, a paper in Monthly Weather Review described the Black Hills as an island in a sea of cold air, with warm chinook air over them above about 4,500 feet while the lower towns stayed in the severe cold. Newcastle's station, at 4,415 feet, sits just under that line, though the paper says west-slope data were scanty.

The map carries that split: Jerome and Clay Spur, on the flats near 4,200 feet, plan for −42°F against Newcastle's −35°F. One caution: in the recent outbreaks the gap between the two stations nearly closed (2°F in 1996, 0°F in 2022, 1°F in 2024), and nobody has documented why. Upton read −33°F, −29°F and −35°F those mornings, so our −42°F on the plains is colder than any of them, but Upton has been to −41°F or −42°F three times since 1963.

Climb off the low ground and it warms, but only so far. Around Newcastle the few low patches of floor plan for −37°F and the benches 100 to 700 feet up −34°F. Frannie Peak, 800 feet above the floor, plans for −32°F, the warmest named spot on the map. Higher up it turns colder again, to −38°F on Mount Pisgah's flat top and −42°F at Red Butte, 260 feet above a high valley floor near 5,400 feet. NWS Rapid City notes subzero readings are common in the higher valleys, and the Blind Park station, at 6,890 feet just off the northeast corner, ran colder than Newcastle in the last three big outbreaks (−37°F to −34°F on January 13, 2024). Some arctic air comes in deep enough to bury the hills, and the hills keep their snow while the plains' melts.

Water and town heat don't do much here: Weston County has under 2 square miles of water, none of it big enough to warm a shore, and nobody has measured a Newcastle heat island. Wind matters more. Frequent 30 to 40 mph winter wind from the west-southwest to northwest mixes warmer air down, wipes out the drainage pattern for that night, and scours snow off open ground.

The spring layer is a different picture, because a bloom-night frost follows local drainage, not the depth of an arctic air mass. Hills read warm in May, even ones that plan cold in January: Frannie Peak 10°F warmer than Newcastle on a bloom night, Red Butte and Shale Hill 9°F warmer. They're steep, and the cold slides off them. The flats and draws read coldest: the Osage flat 6°F colder than town, the draw at LAK Reservoir 5°F to 6°F colder, Jerome 4°F colder.

Newcastle, the benches and Hill View Heights

Newcastle, the Weston County seat, was founded in 1889 as a coal and railroad town where U.S. 16 and U.S. 85 now cross. The town point, on low ground at about 4,325 feet, plans for −35°F (MFTC 3a), with a typical winter around −19°F. Within 3 miles the low floor patches run −37°F, the benches −34°F and the warmest tenth of the ground −33°F. The NOAA station, less than a mile east at 4,415 feet, carries its own 30-year number of −34°F, the map reads −34°F there too, and its coldest since 1995 is −34°F, on January 13, 2024.

A lot in the Newcastle additions on the county plats (Original, Greenwood, Forest Hill Park, Black Hills View, City View, Plainview, East Saddle) falls in that −33°F to −37°F spread, low lots toward the floor number. Downtown, between the BNSF tracks and West Main Street, is known for its sandstone buildings and retaining walls. Stone holds the day's heat into the night, so a spot within a few feet of a south or west wall is where the tenderest tree in town belongs.

Hill View Heights, about 3 miles southeast of the town point, is the best-placed named neighborhood here: a bench 110 feet above the floor at 4,337 feet, on a 5 percent slope (right in the 4 to 8 percent grade Montana State University recommends), planning for −34°F (MFTC 3b), typical winter around −18°F, and about the same as town on a bloom night. Edge-of-town tracts like Gateway Estates, Painted Hills Country Estates and the Hossfeld Subdivision can sit on floor or bench, so type your address.

At −34°F to −35°F the hardiest sweet cherries and peaches are right at the line on low ground, with a degree to spare on the benches. Lapins and Gold, the hardiest sweet cherries we've found, are both −35°F, and a grower of ours in Cowley, Wyoming saw no damage on Lapins at −33°F. Siberian C peach is also −35°F, though it ripens very late. Worth a try on the best bench or against a south wall: Rainier cherry and Contender peach, both −30°F; Contender is the only commercial peach we know of that has taken −32°F. Bloom is the bigger risk with all of these, so keep them out of the draws.

Osage, Shale Hill and the middle of the county

Osage, site of a big oil gusher in March 1920, sits about halfway to Upton, 14 miles northwest of Newcastle. The hamlet point, on a flat at 4,303 feet with a 1 percent slope, plans for −39°F (MFTC 3a), typical winter around −21°F, and another point in Osage on a 4 percent toe slope plans for −38°F. That's about 3°F colder than Newcastle at the same elevation, because Osage is out on the plains, away from the hills.

The spring layer is where Osage stands out. The flat reads 6°F colder than Newcastle on a still bloom night, one of the frostiest readings on the map. Shale Hill, 2.5 miles north-northeast, plans for −37°F in winter, but its side, 170 feet above the floor, reads 9°F warmer than Newcastle at bloom: a 15°F spread inside 2.5 miles. A Hungarian study of 69 clear, calm nights found a valley floor averaged 6.7°F colder than a slope 230 feet higher. It's a 34 percent slope there, so look for gentler ground partway up.

On the Osage flat, stick with what has come through −40°F or colder and doesn't need a perfect bloom: apples like Haralson and Frostbite, and bush fruit like honeyberry (haskap), whose open flowers take 19°F, Montana Black Currant and Pixwell gooseberry. Save plums, cherries and apricots for the slope.

Clay Spur, Jerome and the plains toward Upton

From Osage northwest toward Upton is what the Weather Service calls the Weston County Plains (its zone for Upton, Osage, Rochelle and Clareton). Clay Spur, where the first bentonite plant opened in the 1920s, sits at 4,189 feet, 30 feet above the floor, and plans for −42°F (MFTC 2b), typical winter around −24°F. Jerome, on the flat at 4,212 feet, also plans for −42°F (MFTC 2b). These are the coldest named places on the map, about 7°F colder than Newcastle, and on a bloom night Clay Spur reads 2°F colder than town and Jerome 4°F colder. Upton itself sits just off the map's northwest corner, about 6 miles past Jerome, so for an Upton address use the cold hardiness calculator. Farther north toward Sundance and the Bear Lodge, the Gillette and Sundance map covers you.

Bentonite is mined around Osage and Clay Spur, the Pierre Shale plains carry clay soils, and the clayey sites on what NRCS calls the Black Hills Foot Slopes, from Newcastle north, run clay loam to silty clay with slow permeability, a pH of 6.6 to 8.4 and about 5 percent lime. Test drainage first: dig a hole 2 feet deep, fill it, let it drain, refill it, and under 10 hours is well drained.

At −42°F, plant what has come through −45°F or colder. If you only plant one tree out here, make it a Kerr or Trailman applecrab; the full list is below.

Cambria Canyon, Salt Creek and the high tables north of town

Cambria, the old coal camp off U.S. 85 north of town (mines from 1889 to 1928), sits at 5,121 feet in a canyon; sources aren't clear whether it was Coal Creek Canyon or Little Oil Creek Canyon, the one later called Cambria Canyon. On the canyon side, 270 feet above the canyon floor at 5,201 feet, the map plans for −37°F (MFTC 3a) and reads 5°F warmer than Newcastle on a bloom night. The canyon bottom is another story: canyons carry cold air down off the plateau at night, so plant on the side or a bench, not along the creek.

Up on the plateau it gets cold again. Mount Pisgah, the flat-topped mesa that tops this country at about 6,400 feet, plans for −38°F, Sweetwater Mountain −37°F, Northwestern Table −39°F and Red Butte −42°F. The Blind Park station, at 6,890 feet, gets only 87 frost-free days (median last 32°F June 10), and the hillsides are mostly pine and juniper. Up high, think bush fruit: Golden Currant, Serviceberry, Chokecherry, Buffaloberry and honeyberry (all −50°F), plus the hardiest applecrabs.

East of town: Tubb Town, LAK Reservoir and the slopes toward South Dakota

East and southeast of Newcastle the hills rise toward the South Dakota line. Tubb Town, about 4 miles east-southeast of the town point, sits on a 10 percent slope at 4,303 feet and plans for −35°F, with a bloom-night reading 1°F colder than Newcastle. LAK (Spencer) Reservoir, a private irrigation reservoir about 4.5 miles east-southeast of the NOAA station, is a trap: the map point there lands in a draw, and while its winter number is a decent −35°F, its spring reading is 5°F to 6°F colder than town. The water's too small to help. Put apples and berries there, not apricots.

The hill slopes above are the warmest ground on the map. Frannie Peak, about 6 miles east-southeast of town, plans for −32°F (MFTC 3b) at about 5,200 feet, 800 feet above the floor, and reads 10°F warmer than Newcastle at bloom. Fanny Peak, right by the state line and 1,160 feet up, is back to −35°F. That's the thermal belt: above the night's cold pool, below the full force of an arctic outbreak. Most of it is steep, but a gentle bench partway up, facing east or north, is where we'd put an apricot. Across the line around Custer and Hot Springs, the southern Black Hills map picks up where this one stops.

Spring frost and bloom around Newcastle

NOAA station records for 1991 to 2020 put Newcastle's median last 32°F on May 16 and its last 28°F on May 6, with the first fall 32°F on September 28, for a median 134 frost-free days. One year in ten the last 32°F comes May 25 or later. Upton's last 32°F lands on the same median date, but its last 28°F comes four days later (May 10) and its first fall frost a week earlier (September 21), for 124 days. Newcastle's record May low is 11°F, Upton's 5°F.

Open blossoms of apples, pears, cherries, peaches, apricots and plums all start dying at about 28°F (that's Michigan State's fruit people), so anything in bloom before May 6 faces a 28°F night in about half of springs. Nobody has published bloom dates for Newcastle or documented a spring freeze that wiped out a local crop. On May 19, 2026, a freeze warning covered town and plains, with forecast lows in the upper 20s°F for Newcastle and the mid 20s°F on the plains and in the Wyoming Black Hills.

Unless it's clustered like cherries and grapes, most fruit can lose half its blossoms with little effect; frost works as natural thinning. Only about 15 percent of apple blossoms need to set for a crop (the University of Minnesota's number), and open honeyberry flowers take 19°F. Apricots are the problem: UW Extension says most aren't reliable every year in Wyoming because they bloom early.

So site trees by bloom time. Apricots, peaches, plums and sweet cherries go highest (the benches around Newcastle and Hill View Heights, the slopes toward Frannie Peak, the side of Shale Hill); apples, pears and bush fruit can go lower. An east-facing slope warms quickly on a frosty morning, and a north slope holds early bloomers back. Stay off the Osage flat and out of draws like the one at LAK Reservoir, and don't let a shelterbelt or fence across the slope dam cold air into the trees above it. Through bloom, mow under 2 inches, don't till, and water a day or two before a forecast frost; firm, moist, bare soil gives its heat back at night. That all helps on a still, clear night; when a May freeze comes in on a wind, the benches lose their edge.

Fall counts too. Freezes after September 30 are common across Wyoming, and an early hard freeze kills at temperatures a January tree shrugs off (Michigan tart cherry buds that died at about −12°F in November survived about −20°F in January). We taper water from mid-August in zone 4 and colder so trees harden off, and that's every spot on this map.

What the weather records say

Newcastle's coldest reading in 102 years of NOAA station records is −37°F, on January 17, 1930. Upton has 68 years and a record of −45°F from January 23, 1915. Blind Park (6,890 feet, 32 years) has −37°F from January 13, 2024. The average year's coldest night runs −20°F at Newcastle, −24°F at Blind Park and −26°F at Upton.

The big outbreaks, Upton then Newcastle: January 19, 1963, −42°F and −30°F; December 24, 1983, −42°F and −34°F; December 22, 1989, −41°F and −27°F; December 22, 1990, −37°F and −31°F; February 2, 1996, −33°F and −31°F; December 22, 2022, both −29°F; January 13, 2024, −35°F and −34°F. Newcastle came in warmer, or tied, every time.

Newcastle averages 17.16 inches of precipitation a year, semi-arid country with Thunder Basin and the Powder River Basin off to the west. NRCS gives Newcastle a January average of about 24°F against about 20°F at Devils Tower, the mildest winters in the area.

USDA's 2023 map puts Newcastle (82701), Upton (82730) and Osage (82723) in zone 4b, −25°F to −20°F. Newcastle's average yearly low of −20°F sits at the warm edge of 4b, because USDA builds its map on the average of each winter's coldest night. We plan for the bad night: MFTC 3a for the town and the Osage flat, 3b for Hill View Heights and the warm slopes, 2b on the plains, a full zone or more colder than USDA everywhere on this map. UW Extension warns that a variety short on hardiness can live several years before a harsh winter kills it.

What you can grow around Newcastle

Newcastle's benches, town lots and the warm hill slopes: −32°F to −35°F

Honeycrisp, Zestar!® and Sweet Sixteen apples; Summercrisp pear; Superior and Italian plums; Lapins and Gold sweet cherries (−35°F, right at the line on low ground) and Meteor tart; Westcot and Sungold apricots on the highest ground; Siberian C peach. Worth a try on a south wall or the best bench: Rainier, Contender and Honeysweet pear, all −30°F. Berries: honeyberry, Red Lake currant, Boyne raspberry.

The Osage country, the canyons and the high tables: −36°F to −40°F

Haralson, Frostbite and Norland apples; Ure pear; Underwood and Brookred plums; Evan's Bali tart cherry and Romeo and Juliet dwarf cherries; Morden 604 apricot on a slope. Worth a try at the −36°F to −37°F end, on a slope: Lapins and Siberian C (−35°F). Berries: honeyberry, Montana Black Currant, Aronia.

The plains toward Upton: colder than −40°F

Wealthy, Mantet and Norda apples; Kerr, Trailman and Centennial applecrabs (Ed Schultz saw zero winter injury on Centennial after a winter that hit −47°F) and Dolgo crab; Bolshaya and Krasnobokaya pears; Brookgold and Northern Blue plums; Evan's Bali and FE tart cherries and Nanking cherry; Debbie's Gold apricot. Berries: honeyberry, Sophia Groundcover raspberry, American elderberry. Worth a try, sheltered and under snow: the −40°F apples like Zestar!®.

Roots and rootstocks. Dormant apple roots get seriously hurt near 10°F while the wood above takes about −40°F. Out here snow melts fast and blows off, so hold it over the roots, mulch, and don't let the root zone go into winter bone dry; dry soil means more root death. UW Extension recommends Antonovka rootstock for apples, American plum under plums, and common or Ussurian pear for pears. At Ed Schultz's farm in Gallatin Gateway, Montana, Bud 118 apple rootstock has seen near −50°F with no damage, under snow.

Wind and site. A windbreak earns its keep twice here: it breaks the winter wind, and at 30 to 40 percent density it spreads snow evenly over the roots. Put it on the west and northwest, keep it 20 feet or more from the trees, and leave the low side open so cold air drains out. Stake young trees loosely the first year, and give them at least 6 hours of direct sun.

Pollenizers and problems. The Weston County tree guide notes Haralson, Honeycrisp and Sweet Sixteen each need a pollenizer, while the tart cherries on its list are self-fertile; our pollination maps show which varieties bloom together. The same guide flags fire blight on Jonathan (Sweet Sixteen resists it), black knot on chokecherry and sand cherry, and cedar-apple rust on Saskatoon, and says to protect young plants from animals and mowers. Get a soil test on this alkaline clay. Hail you can't plan around.

Fruit history in Weston County

There isn't much on record; WyoHistory's county history runs through cattle, sheep, oil, coal and bentonite and never mentions an orchard. The nearest fruit history is the state's Experimental Fruit Farm at Sundance, about 40 miles north, and in the old Wyoming bulletins the most cited apple was Wealthy, then Yellow Transparent, Jonathan, Northwest Greening and Wolf River. Today the Weston County Natural Resource District runs a spring seedling sale, and its "Trees and Shrubs for Weston County" guide advises trees hardy to at least zone 4; by our numbers, aim colder. The UW specialty crop directory lists local chokecherry jam but no commercial orchard, u-pick or cidery.

Questions people ask

What hardiness zone is Newcastle, Wyoming?

USDA's 2023 map puts Newcastle (ZIP 82701), Upton and Osage in zone 4b, −25°F to −20°F, built on an average winter. We plan for the bad night: −35°F in town, MFTC 3a, and −34°F (MFTC 3b) on benches like Hill View Heights. On the plains toward Upton it's −42°F, MFTC 2b.

When is the last frost in Newcastle, WY?

NOAA station records for 1991 to 2020 put the median last 32°F on May 16 and the last 28°F on May 6. The median first fall frost is September 28, for about 134 frost-free days. One year in ten the last 32°F comes May 25 or later.

Why is Upton colder than Newcastle?

Upton sits lower, on open plains where arctic air pools and keeps cooling, while Newcastle sits on the first rise of the Black Hills. In the big outbreaks from 1963 to 1990 Upton ran 6°F to 14°F colder, though in the last three the two came within 2°F of each other.

Can you grow apricots in Newcastle, Wyoming?

The trees will live: Westcot and Morden 604 have come through −45°F against the town's −35°F. The crop is the problem, because apricots bloom early and Newcastle's median last 28°F isn't until May 6. Plant them on a bench or an east or north slope and expect to miss some years.

Can you grow cherries in Weston County?

Yes. Tart cherries like Evan's Bali and Meteor fit everywhere but the coldest plains, and Nanking and dwarf cherries like Romeo (both −50°F) go anywhere on this map. Lapins and Gold sweet cherries (−35°F) are right at Newcastle's number, so give them the best bench or a south wall.

What is the coldest temperature recorded in Newcastle, Wyoming?

The Newcastle NOAA station's coldest reading in 102 years is −37°F, on January 17, 1930. Since 1995 its coldest is −34°F, on January 13, 2024. Upton, about 27 miles northwest, has a −45°F from January 23, 1915.

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.