The table lists each place with its elevation, USDA hardiness zone, the average extreme low temperature for that zone and the driving distance from our yard at 6301 US Highway 50 East in Carson City. It is a quick way to see how different the growing conditions are from town to town.
What the dataset is
Elevation is taken at one point near the center of each place from the U.S. Geological Survey's 3DEP elevation service. Hardiness zones come from the 2023 USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map and are assigned by ZIP code. Each zone is a 10 degree band of the average yearly lowest winter temperature, and each letter splits the band in half, so 7a is 0 to 5 degrees and 7b is 5 to 10 degrees. Driving distance and time are from OSRM, a free routing engine, from our yard to a point near the center of the town.
What stands out
- The lowest point is Fallon at 3,965 feet, then Wadsworth (4,073) and Fernley (4,154). The highest is Kingsbury at 7,126 feet, then Incline Village (6,437) and Crystal Bay (6,396).
- Carson City sits at 4,680 feet in zone 7a. Reno at 4,505 feet is 7b. Minden at 4,725 feet, close to Carson City in height, is 6b.
- Zone does not follow elevation neatly. Kingsbury, the highest place in the table, is listed as 7a, while Zephyr Cove and Incline Village at lower heights are 6b. The map is applied by ZIP code, so it is a guide, not a measurement for your yard.
- Zone 6b appears in Minden, Genoa, Johnson Lane, Gardnerville Ranchos, Smith Valley, Topaz Ranch Estates, Galena and Mt. Rose Highway, Zephyr Cove and Incline Village.
- Mound House is 2.1 miles and about 3 minutes from the yard, Dayton about 12 minutes and Carson City about 8. Hawthorne is 115.3 miles and about 145 minutes. Drive times are without traffic and are not a promise of arrival.
What it means for your trees
Elevation and zone shape which trees do well and which struggle. A tree that thrives in zone 7b Reno can be marginal in a 6b yard, and winter cold damage shows up as dead twigs and branch tips in spring. The snow a tree carries also changes with height. See climate normals by station.
Pruning timing in this region follows dormancy: late winter for most deciduous trees and early spring and summer for most conifers, with hazards and dead wood handled any time. See the best time to prune in Northern Nevada. For work in the Tahoe Basin, the diameter rules are on the tree rules page.
Limits of the data
A single elevation point cannot describe a town that spans a slope, as Reno and Carson City do. Hardiness zones describe winter minimums only; they say nothing about summer heat, wind or water. Check the actual conditions at your address before you decide anything about one tree.
Sources
- USDA Agricultural Research Service: Plant Hardiness Zone Map (2023) (retrieved October 1, 2026)
- U.S. Geological Survey: 3DEP elevation point query (retrieved October 1, 2026)