El Centro Naval Air Facility, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Among the crops suited to this profile: avocado, meyer lemon, tomato, and artichoke. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in El Centro Naval Air Facility, 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 El Centro Naval Air Facility 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 El Centro Naval Air Facility — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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El Centro Naval Air Facility — the short answer
El Centro Naval Air Facility, California: USDA zone 10a, about 344 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 10a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 15
- Imperial County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 25
- Imperial County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~344
- Imperial County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 3K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. No 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid, so the hard-freeze dates are Imperial County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 10a is El Centro Naval Air Facility's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against El Centro Naval Air Facility's 344-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in El Centro Naval Air Facility
Each reading below is measured for El Centro Naval Air Facility itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsEl Centro Naval Air Facility runs about 344 days between hard freezes (read from Imperial County, the closest normal to El Centro Naval Air Facility) — close to year-round growing.
Frost is rarely the limit here; winter plantings are as real as summer ones, and the harder question is which crops shrug off the summer heat.
Grow cool-season crops through the mild winter, and choose heat-tolerant varieties for the summer beds.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredEl Centro Naval Air Facility sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a.
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 El Centro Naval Air Facility is in
El Centro Naval Air Facility sits in the Sonoran Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at El Centro Naval Air Facility's own centroid rather than borrowed from Imperial County.
What Grows in El Centro Naval Air Facility
Plants matched to El Centro Naval Air Facility's USDA zones 10a, ordered by how much hardiness margin each has here — the ones with room to spare at both ends of this town's band lead. Each links to its full growing profile.
Is it too late to plant in El Centro Naval Air Facility?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jan 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 25 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
What's on the federal record near El Centro Naval Air Facility
Closest first, within ~10 miles of El Centro Naval Air Facility. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CASPIAN INC EL CENTROBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- K & M PRESS, INC.Brownfields · 2.0 mi
- C & G FARMS, INC.Brownfields · 2.0 mi
- AT&T MOBILITYBrownfields · 2.1 mi
- OSTERKAMP TRUCKING INCBrownfields · 2.1 mi
- UNITED STATES GYPSUM COToxics Release Inventory · 2.1 mi
- UNITED STATES GYPSUM COBrownfields · 2.1 mi
- ALLSTAR SEED COMPANYBrownfields · 2.2 mi
- TAYLOR FARMING LLC - FORRESTERBrownfields · 2.5 mi
- SEELEY UNION SCHOOL DISTRICTBrownfields · 2.5 mi
- SUNBEAM PARKBrownfields · 2.7 mi
- BOB LOCHER HAY COBrownfields · 3.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from El Centro Naval Air Facility'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 El Centro Naval Air Facility.
Total Sites
468
within ~10 miles of El Centro Naval Air Facility
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
5 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of El Centro Naval Air Facility
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of El Centro Naval Air Facility
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around El Centro Naval Air Facility, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of El Centro Naval Air Facility — Brownfields (418 sites) and PFAS (5 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in El Centro Naval Air Facility
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 El Centro Naval Air Facility average
Your land is one point inside El Centro Naval Air Facility
Everything above resolves to El Centro Naval Air Facility as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 3K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Imperial County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid. Your parcel is one point inside that footprint. 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 El Centro Naval Air Facility Average
El Centro Naval Air Facility Average
- ●USDA Zones 10a, averaged across El Centro Naval Air Facility
- ●One soil character for all of El Centro Naval Air Facility
- ●Frost dates read at El Centro Naval Air Facility's scale: Jan 15 to Dec 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not El Centro Naval Air Facility's 10a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in El Centro Naval Air Facility
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in El Centro Naval Air Facility, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that El Centro Naval Air Facility averages can't show:
We read public map data around El Centro Naval Air Facility — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the El Centro Naval Air Facility average
How we know this about El Centro Naval Air Facility
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 Imperial County’s record, because none resolves here; 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 El Centro Naval Air Facility
When does frost risk typically end in El Centro Naval Air Facility?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in El Centro Naval Air Facility typically lands around Jan 15, 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 Feb 5.
When is the first frost in El Centro Naval Air Facility?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in El Centro Naval Air Facility typically arrives around Dec 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 11, so the watching starts about Nov 25 — about 344 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in El Centro Naval Air Facility?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, El Centro Naval Air Facility sees about 344 frost-free days — roughly Jan 15 through Dec 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 5 to Dec 11, about 309 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in El Centro Naval Air Facility?
The federal record around El Centro Naval Air Facility is a meaningful one — 468 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (418), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.8 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 I protect my plants from frost in El Centro Naval Air Facility?
From about Nov 25 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 Dec 25 (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 Dec 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at El Centro Naval Air Facility's scale — its 10a band and its 344-day season. Your yard writes its own version of El Centro Naval Air Facility'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 El Centro Naval Air Facility’s own scale
4 of the readings below were taken at El Centro Naval Air Facility's own scale — the 2,682 acres it covers and 468 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- El Centro Naval Air Facility's own USDA hardiness band, zones 10aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 468 documented contamination sites on the federal record near El Centro Naval Air Facility, the closest Brownfields record about 0.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- El Centro Naval Air Facility's boundary and the 2,682 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- The ecoregion at El Centro Naval Air Facility's own centroid, the Sonoran Basin and RangeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — El Centro Naval Air Facility has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Imperial County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so El Centro Naval Air Facility's 2,682 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Imperial County
- The candidate plant list — California's curated set, filtered to this zone band and re-ordered by how much margin each has herefrom California
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Imperial 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 Imperial County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among El Centro Naval Air Facility's 2,682 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of El Centro Naval Air Facility you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,682 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.8 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 El Centro Naval Air Facility-wide figureread your own land →