Port Arthur, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Growers here do well with okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Port Arthur, 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 Port Arthur 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 Port Arthur — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Port Arthur — the short answer
Port Arthur, Texas: USDA zone 9b, about 315 days between hard freezes, across 48K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 29
- Jefferson County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 10
- Jefferson County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~315
- Jefferson County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 48K 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 Jefferson County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Port Arthur's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Port Arthur's 315-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Port Arthur
Each reading below is measured for Port Arthur itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsPort Arthur runs about 315 days between hard freezes (read from Jefferson County, the closest normal to Port Arthur) — 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
MeasuredPort Arthur sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b.
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 Port Arthur is in
Port Arthur sits in the Western Gulf Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Port Arthur's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jefferson County.
What Grows in Port Arthur
Every plant below cleared Port Arthur's own zone 9b and its 315-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Port Arthur?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 10 — 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 Port Arthur
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Port Arthur. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PUMP STATION 10Underground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- WEAVER FALGOUT CARRUTHBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- JONES GULF SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- MARKS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- GOSMER H PHILLIPSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- ROYS AUTOMOTIVEBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- ALL IN ONE AUTOBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- ARNOLDS AUTO SUPPLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- SUNRISE GROCERY 5Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- POTRILLOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- FRANK HALL TRUCK RPRBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- CITY GARAGE TRANSITUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Port Arthur'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 Port Arthur.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Port Arthur
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Port Arthur
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Port Arthur, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Port Arthur — Superfund (13 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (60 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Port Arthur
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 Port Arthur average
Your land is one point inside Port Arthur
Everything above resolves to Port Arthur as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 48K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Jefferson 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 Port Arthur Average
Port Arthur Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Port Arthur
- ●One soil character for all of Port Arthur
- ●Frost dates read at Port Arthur's scale: Jan 29 to Dec 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Port Arthur's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Port Arthur
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Port Arthur, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Port Arthur averages can't show:
We read public map data around Port Arthur — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Port Arthur average
How we know this about Port Arthur
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 Jefferson 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 Port Arthur
When does frost risk typically end in Port Arthur?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Port Arthur typically lands around Jan 29, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Port Arthur?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Port Arthur typically arrives around Dec 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 26, so the watching starts about Nov 10 — about 315 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Port Arthur?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Port Arthur sees about 315 frost-free days — roughly Jan 29 through Dec 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 19 to Nov 26, about 280 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Port Arthur?
The federal record around Port Arthur runs heavier than most — 691 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (370), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Port Arthur?
From about Nov 10 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Port Arthur's scale — its 9b band and its 315-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Port Arthur'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 Port Arthur’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Port Arthur's own scale — the 48,353 acres it covers and 691 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Port Arthur's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 691 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Port Arthur, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Port Arthur's boundary and the 48,353 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~315-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Port Arthur's own centroid, the Western Gulf Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Port Arthur has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Jefferson County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Port Arthur's 48,353 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jefferson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jefferson 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 Jefferson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Port Arthur's 48,353 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Port Arthur you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 48,353 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Port Arthur-wide figureread your own land →
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