Chinook, Washington, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Among the crops suited to this profile: kale, potato, garlic, and western red cedar. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Chinook, 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 Chinook 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 Chinook — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Chinook — the short answer
Chinook, Washington: USDA zone 9a, about 207 days between hard freezes, across 644 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 5
- Pacific County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 29
- Pacific County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~207
- Pacific County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 644 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 Pacific County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Chinook's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Chinook's 207-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Chinook
Each reading below is measured for Chinook itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsChinook runs about 207 days between hard freezes (read from Pacific County, the closest normal to Chinook) — 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
MeasuredChinook sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a.
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 Chinook is in
Chinook sits in the Coast Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider Marine West Coast Forest. That is read at Chinook's own centroid rather than borrowed from Pacific County.
What Grows in Chinook
Plants matched to Chinook's USDA zones 9a, ordered by how much hardiness margin each has here — the ones with room to spare at both ends of this town's band lead. Each links to its full growing profile.
Is it too late to plant in Chinook?
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 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 29 — 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 Chinook
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Chinook. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CHINOOK COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- CHINOOK PORT OFUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- DAVID R WILLIAMS DAVES SPORT SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- FT COLUMBIA STATE PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- STATION CAMPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- ILWACO WATER TREATMENT FACILITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
- US FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
- WILCOX & FLEGEL MARINE FUELUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.9 mi
- PACIFIC FUEL DOCKUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.9 mi
- USCG STATION CAPE DISAPPOINTMENT SAFRSuperfund · 4.9 mi
- ILWACO PORT OF LYLES CANNERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
- ANDYS SALMON CHARTERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Chinook'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 Chinook.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Chinook
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Chinook
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Chinook, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 6 sites within ~10 miles of Chinook. 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.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Chinook
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 Chinook average
Your land is one point inside Chinook
Everything above resolves to Chinook as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 644 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Pacific County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’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 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 Chinook Average
Chinook Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Chinook
- ●One soil character for all of Chinook
- ●Frost dates read at Chinook's scale: Apr 5 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Chinook's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Chinook
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Chinook, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Chinook averages can't show:
We read public map data around Chinook — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Chinook average
How we know this about Chinook
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 Pacific 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 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 Chinook
When does frost risk typically end in Chinook?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Chinook typically lands around Apr 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Chinook?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Chinook typically arrives around Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 15, so the watching starts about Sep 29 — about 207 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Chinook?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Chinook sees about 207 frost-free days — roughly Apr 5 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 26 to Oct 15, about 172 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Chinook?
The federal record around Chinook is a meaningful one — 219 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (133), 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 Chinook?
From about Sep 29 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 Oct 29 (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 Oct 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Chinook's scale — its 9a band and its 207-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Chinook'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 Chinook’s own scale
4 of the readings below were taken at Chinook's own scale — the 644 acres it covers and 219 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Chinook's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 219 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Chinook, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Chinook's boundary and the 644 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- The ecoregion at Chinook's own centroid, the Coast RangeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Chinook has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Pacific County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Chinook's 644 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pacific County
- The candidate plant list — Washington's curated set, filtered to this zone band and re-ordered by how much margin each has herefrom Washington
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pacific County
- The growing challenges every Washington grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Washington
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Pacific County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Chinook's 644 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Chinook you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 644 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 Chinook-wide figureread your own land →
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