McCamey, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
These conditions suit cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in McCamey, 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 McCamey 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 McCamey — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
McCamey — the short answer
McCamey, Texas: USDA zone 8b, about 270 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 27
- Upton County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 24
- Upton County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~270
- Upton County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 1K 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 Upton County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is McCamey's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against McCamey's 270-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in McCamey
Each reading below is measured for McCamey itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsMcCamey runs about 270 days between hard freezes (read from Upton County, the closest normal to McCamey) — 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
MeasuredMcCamey 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 McCamey is in
McCamey sits in the Chihuahuan Deserts — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at McCamey's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Upton County is mostly High Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in McCamey
Every plant below cleared McCamey's own zone 8b and its 270-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in McCamey?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 30; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 24 — 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 McCamey
Closest first, within ~10 miles of McCamey. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CITY OF MCCAMEYUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- LITTLE SPOT GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- R R KENNEDYUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- ALLSUPS 288Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- MCCAMEY TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- GLASS EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- STRIPES 5008Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- JM PETROLEUMUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- MC CAMEY IND SCHOOL DISTRICTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- HARLANS CHEVRON SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- CARBO CERAMICS INC. - MCCAMEY DISTRIBUTION CENTERBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- PIONEER OILCO 112Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
4 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from McCamey'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 McCamey.
Total Sites
17
within ~10 miles of McCamey
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of McCamey
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of McCamey
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •TRI facilities report what they release. Check the wind — downwind beds catch more of it.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in McCamey
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 McCamey average
Your land is one point inside McCamey
Everything above resolves to McCamey as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Upton County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’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 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 McCamey Average
McCamey Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across McCamey
- ●One soil character for all of McCamey
- ●Frost dates read at McCamey's scale: Feb 27 to Nov 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not McCamey's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in McCamey
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in McCamey, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that McCamey averages can't show:
We read public map data around McCamey — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the McCamey average
How we know this about McCamey
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 Upton 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 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 McCamey
When does frost risk typically end in McCamey?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in McCamey typically lands around Feb 27, 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 Mar 20.
When is the first frost in McCamey?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in McCamey typically arrives around Nov 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 10, so the watching starts about Oct 25 — about 270 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in McCamey?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, McCamey sees about 270 frost-free days — roughly Feb 27 through Nov 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 20 to Nov 10, about 235 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in McCamey?
The federal record around McCamey is light — 17 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (11), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 McCamey?
From about Oct 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 Nov 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at McCamey's scale — its 8b band and its 270-day season. Your yard writes its own version of McCamey'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 McCamey’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at McCamey's own scale — the 1,296 acres it covers and 17 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- McCamey's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 17 documented contamination sites on the federal record near McCamey, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- McCamey's boundary and the 1,296 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~270-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- McCamey sits in the Chihuahuan Deserts — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — McCamey has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Upton County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so McCamey's 1,296 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Upton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Upton 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 Upton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among McCamey's 1,296 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of McCamey you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,296 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 McCamey-wide figureread your own land →