Outlook, Washington, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Outlook, 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 Outlook 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 Outlook — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Outlook — the short answer
Outlook, Washington: USDA zone 7a, about 220 days between hard freezes, across 83 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~220
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 83 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 7a is Outlook's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Outlook's 220-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Outlook
Each reading below is measured for Outlook itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredOutlook runs about 220 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
MeasuredOutlook sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Outlook is in
Outlook sits in the Columbia Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Outlook's own centroid rather than borrowed from Yakima County.
What Grows in Outlook
Every plant below cleared Outlook's own zone 7a and its 220-day season. Each card opens that plant's Washington profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Outlook?
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 Feb 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 2 — 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 Outlook
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Outlook. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 10N/22E-29D01Nitrate · 1600 ft
- 10N/22E-20N02Nitrate · 2100 ft
- SNIPES MOUNTAIN DAIRY INCCAFO · 0.5 mi
- SNOW AND SONS PRODUCE COUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- 10N/22E-30B01Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- COZY CORNERS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- 10N/22E-21R02Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- 10N/22E-19L01Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- Monson FeedlotUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- DERUYTER BROTHERS DAIRYCAFO · 1.6 mi
- 10N/21E-24J01Nitrate · 1.7 mi
- 10N/22E-27M01Nitrate · 1.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Outlook'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 Outlook.
Total Sites
635
within ~10 miles of Outlook
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Outlook
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Outlook
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Outlook, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Outlook — CAFO (27 sites) and Nitrate (438 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Outlook
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 Outlook average
Your land is one point inside Outlook
Everything above resolves to Outlook as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 83 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 Outlook Average
Outlook Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Outlook
- ●One soil character for all of Outlook
- ●Frost dates read at Outlook's scale: Mar 27 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Outlook's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Outlook
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Outlook, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Outlook averages can't show:
We read public map data around Outlook — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Outlook average
How we know this about Outlook
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 Outlook’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 Outlook
When does frost risk typically end in Outlook?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Outlook typically lands around Mar 27, 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 17.
When is the first frost in Outlook?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Outlook typically arrives around Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 19, so the watching starts about Oct 3 — about 220 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Outlook?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Outlook sees about 220 frost-free days — roughly Mar 27 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 17 to Oct 19, about 185 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Outlook?
The federal record around Outlook is a meaningful one — 635 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (438), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.3 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 Outlook?
From about Oct 3 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 2 (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 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Outlook's scale — its 7a band and its 220-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Outlook'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 Outlook’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Outlook's own scale — its own ~220-day season between 28°F freezes, the 83 acres it covers and 635 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Outlook's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Outlook's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 27 and Nov 2 and the ~220-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 635 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Outlook, the closest Nitrate record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Outlook's boundary and the 83 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~220-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Outlook's own centroid, the Columbia PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Outlook's 83 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Yakima County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Yakima 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 Yakima County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Outlook's 83 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Outlook you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 83 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.3 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 Outlook-wide figureread your own land →