White Salmon, Washington, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 White Salmon, 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 White Salmon 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 White Salmon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
White Salmon — the short answer
White Salmon, Washington: USDA zone 8a, about 266 days between hard freezes, across 984 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~266
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 984 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 8a is White Salmon's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against White Salmon's 266-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in White Salmon
Each reading below is measured for White Salmon itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWhite Salmon runs about 266 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
MeasuredWhite Salmon sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 White Salmon is in
White Salmon sits in the Eastern Cascades Slopes and Foothills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at White Salmon's own centroid rather than borrowed from Klickitat County.
What Grows in White Salmon
Every plant below cleared White Salmon's own zone 8a and its 266-day season. Each card opens that plant's Washington profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in White Salmon?
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 29; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 19 — 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.
Documented around White Salmon
Survey cells within 31 miles of White Salmon checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 553 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near White Salmon
Closest first, within ~10 miles of White Salmon. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- KLICKITAT COUNTY PUD 1Underground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- BMS INVESTMENTS A PARTNERSHIPUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- MAX E LOGAN DBA MID-COLUMBIA CLEANERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- WHITE SALMON DEPT OF PUBLIC WORKSUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- ICE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- UNITED TELEPHONE CO WHITE SALMONUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- HEIDIS GAS & DELIUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- BROWNING TIMBER INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- MAINT DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- SCHOOL DISTRICT 405-17 TRANSPORTATION DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- TOWN PUMP GAS STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- BRIDGE MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from White Salmon'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 White Salmon.
Total Sites
178
within ~10 miles of White Salmon
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of White Salmon
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of White Salmon
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around White Salmon, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of White Salmon — Superfund (3 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (128 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in White Salmon
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 White Salmon average
Your land is one point inside White Salmon
Everything above resolves to White Salmon as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 984 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 city 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 White Salmon Average
White Salmon Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across White Salmon
- ●One soil character for all of White Salmon
- ●Frost dates read at White Salmon's scale: Feb 26 to Nov 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not White Salmon's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in White Salmon
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in White Salmon, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that White Salmon averages can't show:
We read public map data around White Salmon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the White Salmon average
How we know this about White Salmon
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at White Salmon’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 White Salmon
When does frost risk typically end in White Salmon?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in White Salmon typically lands around Feb 26, 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 19.
When is the first frost in White Salmon?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in White Salmon typically arrives around Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 5, so the watching starts about Oct 20 — about 266 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in White Salmon?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, White Salmon sees about 266 frost-free days — roughly Feb 26 through Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 19 to Nov 5, about 231 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in White Salmon?
The federal record around White Salmon is a meaningful one — 178 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (128), 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 White Salmon?
From about Oct 20 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 19 (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 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at White Salmon's scale — its 8a band and its 266-day season. Your yard writes its own version of White Salmon'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 White Salmon’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at White Salmon's own scale — its own ~266-day season between 28°F freezes, the 984 acres it covers and 178 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- White Salmon's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- White Salmon's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Feb 26 and Nov 19 and the ~266-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 178 documented contamination sites on the federal record near White Salmon, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- White Salmon's boundary and the 984 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~266-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at White Salmon's own centroid, the Eastern Cascades Slopes and FoothillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around White Salmon checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so White Salmon's 984 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Klickitat County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Klickitat 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 Klickitat County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among White Salmon's 984 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of White Salmon you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 984 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 White Salmon-wide figureread your own land →
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