Pacific Beach, Washington, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — 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 artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Pacific Beach, 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 Pacific Beach 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 Pacific Beach — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Pacific Beach — the short answer
Pacific Beach, Washington: USDA zone 9a, about 256 days between hard freezes, across 773 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 9
- Grays Harbor County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 20
- Grays Harbor County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~256
- Grays Harbor County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 773 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 Grays Harbor County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Pacific Beach's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pacific Beach's 256-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pacific Beach
Each reading below is measured for Pacific Beach itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsPacific Beach runs about 256 days between hard freezes (read from Grays Harbor County, the closest normal to Pacific Beach) — 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
MeasuredPacific Beach 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 Pacific Beach is in
Pacific Beach sits in the Coast Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider Marine West Coast Forest. That is read at Pacific Beach's own centroid rather than borrowed from Grays Harbor County.
What Grows in Pacific Beach
Every plant below cleared Pacific Beach's own zone 9a and its 256-day season. Each card opens that plant's Washington profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pacific Beach?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 20 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Pacific Beach
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pacific Beach. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- JP HOWARD-SONS CHEVRON STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- 20N/12W-20B01Nitrate · 2000 ft
- YOU & I MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- US NAVY STATION PACIFICUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- WILMA JILESUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- COLE PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- NORTH BEACH HIGH SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- ALOHA SHAKE COMPANY STEWART FERGUSONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- Moclips PlacerMining · 2.0 mi
- IRON SPRINGS LAND COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- JOHNSONS COPALIS MERCANTILE CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.9 mi
- WA DOT COPALIS BEACH MAINTENANCEUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.9 mi
2 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pacific Beach'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 Pacific Beach.
Total Sites
15
within ~10 miles of Pacific Beach
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
1 mining site (prospects, none worked)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pacific Beach
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pacific Beach
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Mine waste leaches heavy metals. Test for lead, arsenic and cadmium before growing food here.
Check your specific parcel in Pacific Beach
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 Pacific Beach average
Your land is one point inside Pacific Beach
Everything above resolves to Pacific Beach as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 773 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Grays Harbor 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 Pacific Beach Average
Pacific Beach Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Pacific Beach
- ●One soil character for all of Pacific Beach
- ●Frost dates read at Pacific Beach's scale: Mar 9 to Nov 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pacific Beach's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pacific Beach
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pacific Beach, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pacific Beach averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pacific Beach — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pacific Beach average
How we know this about Pacific Beach
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 Grays Harbor 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 Pacific Beach
When does frost risk typically end in Pacific Beach?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pacific Beach typically lands around Mar 9, 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 30.
When is the first frost in Pacific Beach?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pacific Beach typically arrives around Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 6, so the watching starts about Oct 21 — about 256 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pacific Beach?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pacific Beach sees about 256 frost-free days — roughly Mar 9 through Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 30 to Nov 6, about 221 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pacific Beach?
The federal record around Pacific Beach is light — 15 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (12), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Pacific Beach?
From about Oct 21 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Pacific Beach's scale — its 9a band and its 256-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pacific Beach'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 Pacific Beach’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Pacific Beach's own scale — the 773 acres it covers and 15 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pacific Beach's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 15 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pacific Beach, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pacific Beach's boundary and the 773 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~256-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Pacific Beach's own centroid, the Coast RangeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Pacific Beach has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Grays Harbor County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Pacific Beach's 773 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Grays Harbor County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Grays Harbor 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 Grays Harbor County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pacific Beach's 773 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pacific Beach you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 773 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Pacific Beach-wide figureread your own land →