Burnt Ranch, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
The conditions favor cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Burnt Ranch, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Burnt Ranch lot. Enter your address and we'll score 1,086 plants against your land's actual soil, sun, and frost.
We read public map data around Burnt Ranch — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Burnt Ranch — the short answer
Burnt Ranch, California: USDA zone 8b, about 247 days between hard freezes, across 9K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~247
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 9K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Burnt Ranch's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Burnt Ranch's 247-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Your town runs its own season
Burnt Ranch's own 30-year record measures about 247 days between 28°F killing freezes — 43 days longer than Trinity County's ~204. Both are measured records, not estimates.
That gap is the whole reason a county average can mislead here. Plant against Burnt Ranch's ~247-day season rather than the county figure — and the sun, slope and cold-air drainage on your specific lot move it again.
NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS (1991–2020), 30-year daily minimum record. Both figures are measured records — this town’s own and its county’s. A town with no record of its own is absent here rather than estimated.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Burnt Ranch
Each reading below is measured for Burnt Ranch itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBurnt Ranch runs about 247 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredBurnt Ranch sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
The zone sets which perennials, shrubs, and fruit trees live through an average winter here — a plant rated for a colder zone is a safe bet, one rated warmer needs winter protection or gets treated as an annual.
Match perennials and fruit to the zone before you buy, so nothing you plant is a gamble against the cold.
USDA PHZM 2023
The kind of country Burnt Ranch is in
Burnt Ranch sits in the Klamath Mountains/California High North Coast Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Burnt Ranch's own centroid rather than borrowed from Trinity County.
What Grows in Burnt Ranch
Every plant below cleared Burnt Ranch's own zone 8b and its 247-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Burnt Ranch?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 26 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Burnt Ranch
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Burnt Ranch. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BURNT RANCH TRANSFER STATIONBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- UnnamedMining · 4.2 mi
- 006N006E19G001HNitrate · 4.8 mi
- Unnamed LocationMining · 6.3 mi
- UnknownMining · 6.5 mi
- SALYER GUARD STATIONBrownfields · 6.7 mi
- Koon RanchMining · 7.0 mi
- Chromite OccurrenceMining · 7.1 mi
- Stanton Chrome, Stanton Chrome Extension ClaimsMining · 7.8 mi
- Stanton ChromeMining · 8.1 mi
- MCKNIGHT READI MIX/MCKNIGHT LOGGING & CONSTRUCTIONBrownfields · 8.3 mi
- Jeffry Pine ClaimMining · 8.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Burnt Ranch's center, not your beds. Run your own address for what's upwind of you specifically.
Environmental Intelligence
The counts behind that headline — every source type on the record near Burnt Ranch.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Burnt Ranch
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Mine waste leaches heavy metals. Test for lead, arsenic and cadmium before growing food here.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Burnt Ranch
Get exact proximity distances to contamination sources for your specific parcel — plus soil, sun, drainage, and 1,086 plant recommendations.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Burnt Ranch average
Your land is one point inside Burnt Ranch
Everything above resolves to Burnt Ranch as a whole — and this is a town whose own 30-year record already runs a season its county’s does not. Your parcel sits at one point inside even that. Slope, tree cover, a low spot that pools cold air, and what is in the soil are all resolved at the address, and none of them are visible at town scale. That is the honest boundary of this page, and the reason the next step is a reading of your own ground rather than a better local average.
Your Lot vs the Burnt Ranch Average
Burnt Ranch Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Burnt Ranch
- ●One soil character for all of Burnt Ranch
- ●Frost dates read at Burnt Ranch's scale: Mar 24 to Nov 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Burnt Ranch's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Burnt Ranch
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Burnt Ranch, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Burnt Ranch averages can't show:
We read public map data around Burnt Ranch — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Burnt Ranch average
How we know this about Burnt Ranch
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Burnt Ranch’s own record; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Burnt Ranch
When does frost risk typically end in Burnt Ranch?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Burnt Ranch typically lands around Mar 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — earlier than the light-frost dates most charts quote. That marks the hard freeze, not the last light frost — lighter frosts keep biting past it, which is why tender transplants here wait until about Apr 14.
When is the first frost in Burnt Ranch?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Burnt Ranch typically arrives around Nov 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 12, so the watching starts about Oct 27 — about 247 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Burnt Ranch?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Burnt Ranch sees about 247 frost-free days — roughly Mar 24 through Nov 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 14 to Nov 12, about 212 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Burnt Ranch?
The federal record around Burnt Ranch is light — 24 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Mining entries (13), the nearest Brownfields record about 1.5 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Burnt Ranch?
From about Oct 27 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Nov 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Nov 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Burnt Ranch's scale — its 8b band and its 247-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Burnt Ranch's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Burnt Ranch’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Burnt Ranch's own scale — its own ~247-day season between 28°F freezes, the 8,563 acres it covers and 24 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Burnt Ranch's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Burnt Ranch's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 24 and Nov 26 and the ~247-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 24 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Burnt Ranch, the closest Brownfields record about 1.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Burnt Ranch's boundary and the 8,563 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~247-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Burnt Ranch's own centroid, the Klamath Mountains/California High North Coast RangeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Burnt Ranch's 8,563 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Trinity County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Trinity County
- The growing challenges every California grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom California
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Trinity County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Burnt Ranch's 8,563 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Burnt Ranch you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 8,563 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 1.5 miles out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Burnt Ranch-wide figureread your own land →
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