Wichita Falls, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
On paper, cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Wichita Falls, 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 Wichita Falls 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 Wichita Falls — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Wichita Falls — the short answer
Wichita Falls, Texas: USDA zone 8a, about 263 days between hard freezes, across 46K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~263
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 46K 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 Wichita Falls's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Wichita Falls's 263-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Wichita Falls
Each reading below is measured for Wichita Falls itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWichita Falls runs about 263 days between hard freezes — 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
MeasuredWichita Falls 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 Wichita Falls is in
Wichita Falls sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Wichita Falls's own centroid rather than borrowed from Wichita County.
What Grows in Wichita Falls
Every plant below cleared Wichita Falls's own zone 8a and its 263-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Wichita Falls?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 6 (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. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
What's on the federal record near Wichita Falls
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Wichita Falls. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MORNINGSIDE CARRIER FACILITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- KOCKS NO 2Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- FORMER JIFFY FOOD STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- CHAMBLES OILUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- K C OILUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- EAGLE MART LCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- WAREHOUSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- DAVES AUTO REPAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- BILLUPS STATION 7916Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- BEVERLY SHOPPING CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- 7 ELEVEN 57211Underground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- PRESTON ONE STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Wichita Falls'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 Wichita Falls.
Total Sites
484
within ~10 miles of Wichita Falls
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Wichita Falls
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Wichita Falls
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Wichita Falls, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 388 sites within ~10 miles of Wichita Falls. 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 Wichita Falls
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 Wichita Falls average
Your land is one point inside Wichita Falls
Everything above resolves to Wichita Falls as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 46K 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 Wichita Falls Average
Wichita Falls Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Wichita Falls
- ●One soil character for all of Wichita Falls
- ●Frost dates read at Wichita Falls's scale: Mar 6 to Nov 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Wichita Falls's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Wichita Falls
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Wichita Falls, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Wichita Falls averages can't show:
We read public map data around Wichita Falls — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Wichita Falls average
How we know this about Wichita Falls
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 Wichita Falls’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 Wichita Falls
When does frost risk typically end in Wichita Falls?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Wichita Falls typically lands around Mar 6, 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 27.
When is the first frost in Wichita Falls?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Wichita Falls 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 263 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Wichita Falls?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Wichita Falls sees about 263 frost-free days — roughly Mar 6 through Nov 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 27 to Nov 10, about 228 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Wichita Falls?
The federal record around Wichita Falls is a meaningful one — 484 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (388), 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 Wichita Falls?
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 Wichita Falls's scale — its 8a band and its 263-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Wichita Falls'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 Wichita Falls’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Wichita Falls's own scale — its own ~263-day season between 28°F freezes, the 46,207 acres it covers and 484 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Wichita Falls's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Wichita Falls's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 6 and Nov 24 and the ~263-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 484 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Wichita Falls, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Wichita Falls's boundary and the 46,207 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~263-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Wichita Falls's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Wichita Falls's 46,207 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Wichita County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Wichita 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 Wichita County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Wichita Falls's 46,207 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Wichita Falls you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 46,207 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 Wichita Falls-wide figureread your own land →
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