Angel Fire, New Mexico, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
The conditions favor cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Angel Fire, 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 Angel Fire 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 Angel Fire — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Angel Fire — the short answer
Angel Fire, New Mexico: USDA zone 6a, about 136 days between hard freezes, across 18K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~136
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 18K 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 6a is Angel Fire's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Angel Fire's 136-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Angel Fire
Each reading below is measured for Angel Fire itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAngel Fire runs about 136 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
MeasuredAngel Fire sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Angel Fire is in
Angel Fire sits in the Southern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Angel Fire's own centroid rather than borrowed from Colfax County.
What Grows in Angel Fire
Every plant below cleared Angel Fire's own zone 6a and its 136-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Mexico profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Angel Fire?
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 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 3 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. When the window is tight, the fall moves are quick ones — baby greens, radishes, and garlic set for next season.
What's on the federal record near Angel Fire
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Angel Fire. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ANGEL FIRE RESORT VEHICLE MAINTENANCE FACILITYBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- VILLAGE OF ANGEL FIREPFAS · 1.6 mi
- LOWES PAY AND SAVE #60Underground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- BACK BASINUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- ANGEL FIRE MINI MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- GOLF COURSE MAINTENANCEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- D MANZ AUTOMOTIVEBrownfields · 2.2 mi
- ANGEL FIRE COLLISION & TOWING SERVICE INCBrownfields · 2.3 mi
- GEORGE ERICKSON PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- PIEDRA LUMBRE EXCAVATIONS INCBrownfields · 4.0 mi
- THE ANGEL FIRE CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.4 mi
- CHEVRON SERVICE STATION 6191Underground Storage Tanks · 7.4 mi
Measured from Angel Fire'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 Angel Fire.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Angel Fire
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •PFAS do not break down in groundwater. Irrigate from a tested source.
Check your specific parcel in Angel Fire
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 Angel Fire average
Your land is one point inside Angel Fire
Everything above resolves to Angel Fire as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 18K acres. 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 Angel Fire Average
Angel Fire Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Angel Fire
- ●One soil character for all of Angel Fire
- ●Frost dates read at Angel Fire's scale: May 20 to Oct 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Angel Fire's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Angel Fire
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Angel Fire, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Angel Fire averages can't show:
We read public map data around Angel Fire — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Angel Fire average
How we know this about Angel Fire
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 Angel Fire’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 Angel Fire
When does frost risk typically end in Angel Fire?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Angel Fire typically lands around May 20, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Angel Fire?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Angel Fire typically arrives around Oct 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 19, so the watching starts about Sep 3 — about 136 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Angel Fire?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Angel Fire sees about 136 frost-free days — roughly May 20 through Oct 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 10 to Sep 19, about 101 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Angel Fire?
The federal record around Angel Fire shows 13 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (7), the nearest Brownfields record about 1.0 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do gardeners stretch the season in Angel Fire?
With about 136 frost-free days between hard freezes, Angel Fire 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 164 to 192 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 20 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Angel Fire's scale — its 6a band and its 136-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Angel Fire'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 Angel Fire’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Angel Fire's own scale — its own ~136-day season between 28°F freezes, the 18,200 acres it covers and 13 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Angel Fire's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Angel Fire's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 20 and Oct 3 and the ~136-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 13 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Angel Fire, the closest Brownfields record about 1.0 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Angel Fire's boundary and the 18,200 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~136-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Angel Fire's own centroid, the Southern RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Angel Fire's 18,200 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Colfax County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Colfax County
- The growing challenges every New Mexico grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom New Mexico
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Colfax County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Angel Fire's 18,200 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Angel Fire you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 18,200 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 1.0 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 Angel Fire-wide figureread your own land →