Thorntonville, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Thorntonville, 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 Thorntonville 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 Thorntonville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Thorntonville — the short answer
Thorntonville, Texas: USDA zone 8a, about 255 days between hard freezes, across 513 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~255
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 513 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 8a is Thorntonville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Thorntonville's 255-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Thorntonville
Each reading below is measured for Thorntonville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredThorntonville runs about 255 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
MeasuredThorntonville sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 Thorntonville is in
Thorntonville sits in the Chihuahuan Deserts — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Thorntonville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Ward County.
What Grows in Thorntonville
Every plant below cleared Thorntonville's own zone 8a and its 255-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Thorntonville?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 17 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Thorntonville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Thorntonville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- COUNTRY STORE 228Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- WESTERN MARKETING-MONAHANSToxics Release Inventory · 0.5 mi
- ATLAS WIRELINE SERVICESUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- MOORE TRANSPORTS & RENTALSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- SCHLUMBERGER WELL SERVICESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- INTERSTATE 20 CHEVRON STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- ROY HURD MEMORIAL AIRPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- DOWELL SCHLUMBERGER MONAHANS TEXAS FACILITYBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- TEXAN 2Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- TROY VINES MONAHANS PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 1.1 mi
- TRACTOR SUPPLY COMPANY #1942Brownfields · 1.1 mi
- HALLIBURTON MONAHANS BAROIDToxics Release Inventory · 1.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Thorntonville'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 Thorntonville.
Total Sites
93
within ~10 miles of Thorntonville
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
9 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Thorntonville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Thorntonville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Thorntonville, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Thorntonville — Toxics Release Inventory (9 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (70 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Thorntonville
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 Thorntonville average
Your land is one point inside Thorntonville
Everything above resolves to Thorntonville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 513 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 Thorntonville Average
Thorntonville Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Thorntonville
- ●One soil character for all of Thorntonville
- ●Frost dates read at Thorntonville's scale: Mar 7 to Nov 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Thorntonville's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Thorntonville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Thorntonville, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Thorntonville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Thorntonville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Thorntonville average
How we know this about Thorntonville
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 Thorntonville’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 Thorntonville
When does frost risk typically end in Thorntonville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Thorntonville typically lands around Mar 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Thorntonville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Thorntonville typically arrives around Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 3, so the watching starts about Oct 18 — about 255 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Thorntonville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Thorntonville sees about 255 frost-free days — roughly Mar 7 through Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 28 to Nov 3, about 220 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Thorntonville?
The federal record around Thorntonville shows 93 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (70), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 I protect my plants from frost in Thorntonville?
From about Oct 18 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Thorntonville's scale — its 8a band and its 255-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Thorntonville'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 Thorntonville’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Thorntonville's own scale — its own ~255-day season between 28°F freezes, the 513 acres it covers and 93 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Thorntonville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Thorntonville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 7 and Nov 17 and the ~255-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 93 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Thorntonville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Thorntonville's boundary and the 513 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~255-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Thorntonville's own centroid, the Chihuahuan DesertsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Thorntonville's 513 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Ward County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Ward 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 Ward County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Thorntonville's 513 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Thorntonville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 513 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 Thorntonville-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasThorntonville sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides