North Omak, Washington, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in North Omak, 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 North Omak 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 North Omak — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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North Omak — the short answer
North Omak, Washington: USDA zone 6b, about 205 days between hard freezes, across 7K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~205
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 7K 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 6b is North Omak's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against North Omak's 205-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in North Omak
Each reading below is measured for North Omak itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNorth Omak runs about 205 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
MeasuredNorth Omak sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 North Omak is in
North Omak sits in the Columbia Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at North Omak's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Okanogan County is mostly North Cascades. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in North Omak
Every plant below cleared North Omak's own zone 6b and its 205-day season. Each card opens that plant's Washington profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in North Omak?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 26 — 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 North Omak
Closest first, within ~10 miles of North Omak. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Lionel Orr WellNitrate · 0.7 mi
- Rocky River Road HUD Well #1Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- Omak HUD Well #1Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- MALEYS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- FEDEX GROUND OMAKBrownfields · 2.6 mi
- WAL MART SUPERCENTER 1947Brownfields · 3.3 mi
- RITE AID 5295Brownfields · 3.4 mi
- SAFEWAY STORE 1194Brownfields · 3.4 mi
- OMACHE TEXACO FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- OMAK FOODMARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- OMAK CITY OFUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- MID VALLEY HOSPITAL DISTRICT 3Underground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from North Omak'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 North Omak.
Total Sites
86
within ~10 miles of North Omak
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of North Omak
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of North Omak
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around North Omak, Mining runs higher than the national average — 13 sites within ~10 miles of North Omak. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in North Omak
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 North Omak average
Your land is one point inside North Omak
Everything above resolves to North Omak as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 7K 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 North Omak Average
North Omak Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across North Omak
- ●One soil character for all of North Omak
- ●Frost dates read at North Omak's scale: Apr 4 to Oct 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not North Omak's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in North Omak
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in North Omak, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that North Omak averages can't show:
We read public map data around North Omak — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the North Omak average
How we know this about North Omak
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 North Omak’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 North Omak
When does frost risk typically end in North Omak?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in North Omak typically lands around Apr 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 Apr 25.
When is the first frost in North Omak?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in North Omak typically arrives around Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 12, so the watching starts about Sep 26 — about 205 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in North Omak?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, North Omak sees about 205 frost-free days — roughly Apr 4 through Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 25 to Oct 12, about 170 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in North Omak?
The federal record around North Omak is a meaningful one — 86 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (46), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.7 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 North Omak?
From about Sep 26 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 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at North Omak's scale — its 6b band and its 205-day season. Your yard writes its own version of North Omak'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 North Omak’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at North Omak's own scale — its own ~205-day season between 28°F freezes, the 7,167 acres it covers and 86 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- North Omak's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- North Omak's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 4 and Oct 26 and the ~205-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 86 documented contamination sites on the federal record near North Omak, the closest Nitrate record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- North Omak's boundary and the 7,167 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~205-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- North Omak sits in the Columbia Plateau — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so North Omak's 7,167 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Okanogan County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Okanogan 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 Okanogan County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among North Omak's 7,167 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of North Omak you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 7,167 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.7 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 North Omak-wide figureread your own land →
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