Carnelian Bay, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
On paper, cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Carnelian Bay, 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 Carnelian Bay 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 Carnelian Bay — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Carnelian Bay — the short answer
Carnelian Bay, California: USDA zone 7a, about 140 days between hard freezes, across 831 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~140
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 831 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 7a is Carnelian Bay's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Carnelian Bay's 140-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Your town runs its own season
Carnelian Bay's own 30-year record measures about 140 days between 28°F killing freezes — 150 days shorter than Placer County's ~290. Both are measured records, not estimates.
That gap is the whole reason a county average can mislead here. Plant against Carnelian Bay's ~140-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 Carnelian Bay
Each reading below is measured for Carnelian Bay itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCarnelian Bay runs about 140 days between hard freezes — a short growing season.
Long-maturing crops like melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can run out of runway before the first hard freeze, ripening late or not at all.
Lead with fast-maturing varieties, and stretch the season on both ends with cold frames, low tunnels, or a greenhouse.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredCarnelian Bay sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Carnelian Bay is in
Carnelian Bay sits in the Sierra Nevada — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Carnelian Bay's own centroid rather than borrowed from Placer County.
What Grows in Carnelian Bay
Every plant below cleared Carnelian Bay's own zone 7a and its 140-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Carnelian Bay?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 13 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Short seasons reward decisiveness — quick-maturing varieties late, hardy greens under cover, and next year’s garlic in the ground before it closes.
What's on the federal record near Carnelian Bay
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Carnelian Bay. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 016N017E15N001MNitrate · 1600 ft
- PACIFIC BELL TELEPHONE CO DBA AT&T CALIFBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- 090 N16 E17 14BBCB1Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- SIERRA BOAT COBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- PETTIT'S PAINTINGBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- JONES CORDA CONSTRUCTION INCBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- NORTH TAHOE PUD - MAINPFAS · 1.5 mi
- MARK HAASBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- NORTH TAHOE PUBLIC UTILITY DISBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- B & G EXCAVATION INCBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- FIBERGLASS SPECIALTIESBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- CALPECO TAHOE VISTA OPERATIONS CENTERBrownfields · 1.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Carnelian Bay'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 Carnelian Bay.
Total Sites
366
within ~10 miles of Carnelian Bay
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Carnelian Bay
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Carnelian Bay
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Carnelian Bay, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Carnelian Bay — PFAS (4 sites) and Brownfields (216 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Carnelian Bay
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 Carnelian Bay average
Your land is one point inside Carnelian Bay
Everything above resolves to Carnelian Bay 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 Carnelian Bay Average
Carnelian Bay Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Carnelian Bay
- ●One soil character for all of Carnelian Bay
- ●Frost dates read at Carnelian Bay's scale: May 26 to Oct 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Carnelian Bay's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Carnelian Bay
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Carnelian Bay, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Carnelian Bay averages can't show:
We read public map data around Carnelian Bay — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Carnelian Bay average
How we know this about Carnelian Bay
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 Carnelian Bay’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 Carnelian Bay
When does frost risk typically end in Carnelian Bay?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Carnelian Bay typically lands around May 26, 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 Jun 16.
When is the first frost in Carnelian Bay?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Carnelian Bay typically arrives around Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 29, so the watching starts about Sep 13 — about 140 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Carnelian Bay?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Carnelian Bay sees about 140 frost-free days — roughly May 26 through Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 16 to Sep 29, about 105 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Carnelian Bay?
The federal record around Carnelian Bay is a meaningful one — 366 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (216), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.3 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do gardeners stretch the season in Carnelian Bay?
With about 140 frost-free days between hard freezes, Carnelian Bay rewards the classic extension moves: floating row cover buys roughly two to four extra weeks at each shoulder — on this season that is a working window nearer 168 to 196 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 26 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Carnelian Bay's scale — its 7a band and its 140-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Carnelian Bay'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 Carnelian Bay’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Carnelian Bay's own scale — its own ~140-day season between 28°F freezes, the 831 acres it covers and 366 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Carnelian Bay's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Carnelian Bay's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 26 and Oct 13 and the ~140-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 366 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Carnelian Bay, the closest Nitrate record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Carnelian Bay's boundary and the 831 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~140-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Carnelian Bay's own centroid, the Sierra NevadaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Carnelian Bay's 831 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Placer County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Placer 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 Placer County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Carnelian Bay's 831 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Carnelian Bay you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 831 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.3 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 Carnelian Bay-wide figureread your own land →