Amarillo, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Amarillo, 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 Amarillo 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 Amarillo — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Amarillo — the short answer
Amarillo, Texas: USDA zone 7a, about 216 days between hard freezes, across 66K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~216
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 66K 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 Amarillo's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Amarillo's 216-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Amarillo
Each reading below is measured for Amarillo itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAmarillo runs about 216 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
MeasuredAmarillo 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 Amarillo is in
Amarillo sits in the High Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Amarillo's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Potter County is mostly Southwestern Tablelands. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Amarillo
Every plant below cleared Amarillo's own zone 7a and its 216-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Amarillo?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 5 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Amarillo
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Amarillo. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- INTERNATIONAL PAPERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- BNSF AMARILLOSuperfund · 1300 ft
- ED FLOOD OILUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- COLE PROPERTIESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- KELLY TIRE SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- 1527 S POLK STUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- 6-10TH & BUCHANANUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- ANDERSON AUTO SALESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- T MILLERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- AMARILLO CAR WASHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- TOOT N TOTUM 97Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- GILLILAND ET ALUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Amarillo'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 Amarillo.
Total Sites
845
within ~10 miles of Amarillo
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Amarillo
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Amarillo
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Amarillo, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 675 sites within ~10 miles of Amarillo. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Amarillo
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 Amarillo average
Your land is one point inside Amarillo
Everything above resolves to Amarillo as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 66K 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 city 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 Amarillo Average
Amarillo Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Amarillo
- ●One soil character for all of Amarillo
- ●Frost dates read at Amarillo's scale: Apr 3 to Nov 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Amarillo's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Amarillo
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Amarillo, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Amarillo averages can't show:
We read public map data around Amarillo — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Amarillo average
How we know this about Amarillo
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Amarillo’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Amarillo
When does frost risk typically end in Amarillo?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Amarillo typically lands around Apr 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Amarillo?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Amarillo typically arrives around Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 22, so the watching starts about Oct 6 — about 216 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Amarillo?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Amarillo sees about 216 frost-free days — roughly Apr 3 through Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 24 to Oct 22, about 181 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Amarillo?
The federal record around Amarillo is a meaningful one — 845 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (675), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Amarillo?
From about Oct 6 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 5 (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 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Amarillo's scale — its 7a band and its 216-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Amarillo'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 Amarillo’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Amarillo's own scale — its own ~216-day season between 28°F freezes, the 66,316 acres it covers and 845 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Amarillo's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Amarillo's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 3 and Nov 5 and the ~216-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 845 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Amarillo, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Amarillo's boundary and the 66,316 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~216-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Amarillo sits in the High Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Amarillo's 66,316 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Potter County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Potter County
- The growing challenges every Texas grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Texas
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Potter County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Amarillo's 66,316 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Amarillo you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 66,316 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Amarillo-wide figureread your own land →
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