Port Angeles East, Washington, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Port Angeles East, 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 Port Angeles East 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 Port Angeles East — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Port Angeles East — the short answer
Port Angeles East, Washington: USDA zone 8b, about 297 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~297
- 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 Port Angeles East's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Port Angeles East's 297-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Port Angeles East
Each reading below is measured for Port Angeles East itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPort Angeles East runs about 297 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
MeasuredPort Angeles East 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 Port Angeles East is in
Port Angeles East sits in the Puget Lowland — EPA Level III, inside the wider Marine West Coast Forest. That is read at Port Angeles East's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Clallam County is mostly Coast Range. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Port Angeles East
Every plant below cleared Port Angeles East's own zone 8b and its 297-day season. Each card opens that plant's Washington profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Port Angeles East?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 2 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
What's on the federal record near Port Angeles East
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Port Angeles East. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PORT ANGELES DISTRIBUTING COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- QWEST CORPORATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- N C MACHINERY CO PORT ANGELESUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- BILL KOENIG CHEVROLET OLDSMOBILE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- SCHMITTS SHEET METAL & ROOFING INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- UNITED PARCEL SERVICE PT ANGELESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- FRANZ BAKERIESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- UPS PORT ANGELESBrownfields · 1500 ft
- WAL MART SUPERCENTER 2196Brownfields · 1700 ft
- WA 095Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- MT PLEASANT SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- MIL-KEY FARMUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Port Angeles East'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 Port Angeles East.
Total Sites
274
within ~10 miles of Port Angeles East
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
6 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Port Angeles East
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Port Angeles East
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Port Angeles East, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 6 sites within ~10 miles of Port Angeles East. 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 Port Angeles East
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 Port Angeles East average
Your land is one point inside Port Angeles East
Everything above resolves to Port Angeles East 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 Port Angeles East Average
Port Angeles East Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Port Angeles East
- ●One soil character for all of Port Angeles East
- ●Frost dates read at Port Angeles East's scale: Feb 8 to Dec 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Port Angeles East's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Port Angeles East
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Port Angeles East, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Port Angeles East averages can't show:
We read public map data around Port Angeles East — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Port Angeles East average
How we know this about Port Angeles East
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 Port Angeles East’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 Port Angeles East
When does frost risk typically end in Port Angeles East?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Port Angeles East typically lands around Feb 8, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Port Angeles East?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Port Angeles East typically arrives around Dec 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 18, so the watching starts about Nov 2 — about 297 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Port Angeles East?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Port Angeles East sees about 297 frost-free days — roughly Feb 8 through Dec 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 1 to Nov 18, about 262 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Port Angeles East?
The federal record around Port Angeles East is a meaningful one — 274 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (151), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Port Angeles East?
From about Nov 2 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 Dec 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 Dec 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Port Angeles East's scale — its 8b band and its 297-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Port Angeles East'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 Port Angeles East’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Port Angeles East's own scale — its own ~297-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,416 acres it covers and 274 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Port Angeles East's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Port Angeles East's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Feb 8 and Dec 2 and the ~297-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 274 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Port Angeles East, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Port Angeles East's boundary and the 2,416 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~297-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Port Angeles East 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 Port Angeles East's 2,416 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Clallam County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Clallam 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 Clallam County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Port Angeles East's 2,416 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Port Angeles East you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,416 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Port Angeles East-wide figureread your own land →