McChord AFB, 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.
Growers here do well with cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in McChord AFB, 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 McChord AFB 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 McChord AFB — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
McChord AFB — the short answer
McChord AFB, Washington: USDA zone 8b, about 264 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 4
- Pierce County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 23
- Pierce County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~264
- Pierce County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 4K 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 Pierce County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is McChord AFB's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against McChord AFB's 264-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in McChord AFB
Each reading below is measured for McChord AFB itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsMcChord AFB runs about 264 days between hard freezes (read from Pierce County, the closest normal to McChord AFB) — 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
MeasuredMcChord AFB 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 McChord AFB is in
McChord AFB sits in the Puget Lowland — EPA Level III, inside the wider Marine West Coast Forest. That is read at McChord AFB's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Pierce County is mostly Cascades. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in McChord AFB
Every plant below cleared McChord AFB's own zone 8b and its 264-day season. Each card opens that plant's Washington profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in McChord AFB?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 4 (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. 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 McChord AFB
Closest first, within ~10 miles of McChord AFB. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 19N/02E-13G02Nitrate · 550 ft
- 19N/02E-13G01Nitrate · 1500 ft
- USAF MCCHORD AFB AREA ASuperfund · 0.5 mi
- 19N/02E-24A01Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- USAF MCCHORD AFB BLDG 792Superfund · 0.6 mi
- MCCHORD AIR FORCE BASE (WASH RACK/TREATMENT AREA)Superfund · 0.6 mi
- USAF MCCHORD AFB AREA CSuperfund · 0.6 mi
- USAF MCCHORD AFB AREA DSuperfund · 0.7 mi
- USAF MCCHORD AFB AREA ESuperfund · 0.7 mi
- 19N/03E-18M02Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- MAC'S DELI MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- USAF MCCHORD AFB BLDG 1173Superfund · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from McChord AFB'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 McChord AFB.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of McChord AFB
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of McChord AFB
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around McChord AFB, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 43 sites within ~10 miles of McChord AFB. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 McChord AFB
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 McChord AFB average
Your land is one point inside McChord AFB
Everything above resolves to McChord AFB as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 4K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Pierce 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 McChord AFB Average
McChord AFB Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across McChord AFB
- ●One soil character for all of McChord AFB
- ●Frost dates read at McChord AFB's scale: Mar 4 to Nov 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not McChord AFB's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in McChord AFB
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in McChord AFB, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that McChord AFB averages can't show:
We read public map data around McChord AFB — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the McChord AFB average
How we know this about McChord AFB
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 Pierce 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 McChord AFB
When does frost risk typically end in McChord AFB?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in McChord AFB typically lands around Mar 4, 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 25.
When is the first frost in McChord AFB?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in McChord AFB 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 264 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in McChord AFB?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, McChord AFB sees about 264 frost-free days — roughly Mar 4 through Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 25 to Nov 9, about 229 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in McChord AFB?
The federal record around McChord AFB runs heavier than most — 1,844 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,125), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.1 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 McChord AFB?
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 McChord AFB's scale — its 8b band and its 264-day season. Your yard writes its own version of McChord AFB'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 McChord AFB’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at McChord AFB's own scale — the 3,761 acres it covers and 1,844 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- McChord AFB's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 1,844 documented contamination sites on the federal record near McChord AFB, the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- McChord AFB's boundary and the 3,761 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~264-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- McChord AFB sits in the Puget Lowland — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — McChord AFB has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Pierce County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so McChord AFB's 3,761 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pierce County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pierce 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 Pierce County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among McChord AFB's 3,761 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of McChord AFB you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,761 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 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 McChord AFB-wide figureread your own land →
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