Clear Lake, Washington, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Clear Lake, 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 Clear Lake 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 Clear Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Clear Lake — the short answer
Clear Lake, Washington: USDA zone 8b, about 276 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~276
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 8b is Clear Lake's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Clear Lake's 276-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Clear Lake
Each reading below is measured for Clear Lake itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredClear Lake runs about 276 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
MeasuredClear Lake 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 Clear Lake is in
Clear Lake sits in the Puget Lowland — EPA Level III, inside the wider Marine West Coast Forest. That is read at Clear Lake's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Skagit County is mostly North Cascades. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Clear Lake
Every plant below cleared Clear Lake's own zone 8b and its 276-day season. Each card opens that plant's Washington profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Clear Lake?
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 Jan 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
What's on the federal record near Clear Lake
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Clear Lake. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- COUNTRY CONVENIENCEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CLEAR SHAKE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- VALLEY FREIGHTLINERBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- ASSOCIATED PETROLEUM PRODUCTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- MT VERNON COMPRESSOR STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- BAUMGARDNER DAIRYCAFO · 2.1 mi
- WA AGR SKAGIT 2Brownfields · 2.1 mi
- BONNER TRADING POSTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- NORTHWEST PIPELINE GP MT VERNON C/SBrownfields · 2.2 mi
- LAKE MCMURRAY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- SHORT STOP MARKET & DELIUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- SINNOTT PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Clear Lake'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 Clear Lake.
Total Sites
398
within ~10 miles of Clear Lake
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
17 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Clear Lake
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Clear Lake
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Clear Lake, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Clear Lake — CAFO (28 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (255 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Clear Lake
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 Clear Lake average
Your land is one point inside Clear Lake
Everything above resolves to Clear Lake as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Clear Lake Average
Clear Lake Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Clear Lake
- ●One soil character for all of Clear Lake
- ●Frost dates read at Clear Lake's scale: Feb 20 to Nov 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Clear Lake's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Clear Lake
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Clear Lake, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Clear Lake averages can't show:
We read public map data around Clear Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Clear Lake average
How we know this about Clear Lake
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 Clear Lake’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 Clear Lake
When does frost risk typically end in Clear Lake?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Clear Lake typically lands around Feb 20, 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 13.
When is the first frost in Clear Lake?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Clear Lake typically arrives around Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 9, so the watching starts about Oct 24 — about 276 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Clear Lake?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Clear Lake sees about 276 frost-free days — roughly Feb 20 through Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 13 to Nov 9, about 241 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Clear Lake?
The federal record around Clear Lake is a meaningful one — 398 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (255), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Clear Lake?
From about Oct 24 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Clear Lake's scale — its 8b band and its 276-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Clear Lake'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 Clear Lake’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Clear Lake's own scale — its own ~276-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,730 acres it covers and 398 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Clear Lake's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Clear Lake's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Feb 20 and Nov 23 and the ~276-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 398 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Clear Lake, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Clear Lake's boundary and the 1,730 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~276-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Clear Lake sits in the Puget Lowland — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Clear Lake's 1,730 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Skagit County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Skagit 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 Skagit County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Clear Lake's 1,730 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Clear Lake you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,730 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Clear Lake-wide figureread your own land →
More in Washington
Growing region
Nearby growing guides