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Hawaii

Planting zones in Kauai County, Hawaii

This county spans USDA zones 12a to 12b, so there is no single zone for Kauai County and anyone who gives you one is rounding. 56% of its ZIP codes are zone 12b; the rest are not.

USDA zones 12a–12b 2 zones across 16 ZIP codes
ZIP codes 16 16 have a NOAA station within range
Weather stations 7 NOAA 1991–2020 normals, across 620 sq mi

Your ZIP code

Get the exact answer for your address

Everything above describes Kauai County, Hawaii as a whole. Hardiness zones and freeze dates are published per ZIP code, so yours is exact — enter it and this page will tell you your zone, which NOAA station it comes from and how far away that station is.

Works for all 40,502 US ZIP codes. Freeze dates need a NOAA station within 100 km; where there is none, the page says so rather than estimating one.

What you can sow in Kauai County now

31 of 32 crops that every one of the 7 NOAA stations serving this county agrees still has time to mature — with a week in hand, so this holds until the page is next rebuilt.

The freeze dates here cross the new year, so no single range describes them and none is quoted. Each ZIP code's own station is cited in the lookup above.

The growing season at one or more of this county's stations crosses 1 January, so a one-year bar would have to start the season after it ended. No chart is drawn rather than a misleading one.

Which zone you are in depends where you are

Kauai County covers 2 hardiness zones. A guide that gives the county one zone has picked whichever is largest and rounded everyone else into it — fine for the 56% in zone 12b and wrong for the other 44%. Here is the actual split.

Zone ZIP codes Share  
12b 9 56%
12a 7 44%

Zones are published per ZIP code, so yours is exact even though the county's is not. The hardiness tool will tell you which one you are in.

Your freeze dates

No freeze range is given for Kauai County, because at least one station here records no freeze at any probability, so there is no date to average. The countdown tool answers per ZIP code, where the question has a definite answer.

The growing season runs 365 days depending which station you are nearest, as published by NOAA rather than computed from the dates above. Summer highs average 71.8–87.4 °F in June–August. Summer rain over the same months runs 2.0–16.7" across those 5 stations, against the rough inch a week — about 13 inches over the same 92 days — that a vegetable garden is usually reckoned to want. The middle station covers about 48% of it, so expect to make up the rest. The inches are NOAA's published normals; the inch a week is a rule of thumb, and it takes no account of a 85 °F summer afternoon drying the soil faster than a cool one.

Every ZIP code in Kauai County

Zones are published per ZIP code, not per county, so this is the exact answer rather than the county's average. The station column is the nearest one to that ZIP code's centroid and how far away it is — the same figure the tools use, shown here so you can see which ZIP codes are well covered and which are reaching.

ZIP code USDA zone Nearest NOAA station Distance
96703 12a Kilauea 1134, HI 9.3 km
96705 12b Makaweli 965, HI 6.5 km
96714 12a Princeville Rch 1117, HI 10.4 km
96716 12b Makaweli 965, HI 2.9 km
96722 12b Princeville Rch 1117, HI 4.0 km
96741 12a Mahaulepu 941.1, HI 11.5 km
96746 12a Lihue WSO AP 1020.1, HI 12.2 km
96747 12b Makaweli 965, HI 0.5 km
96751 12b Lihue WSO AP 1020.1, HI 14.1 km
96752 12b Kanalohuluhulu 1075, HI 2.7 km
96754 12b Kilauea 1134, HI 2.8 km
96756 12b Mahaulepu 941.1, HI 3.3 km
96765 12a Mahaulepu 941.1, HI 8.5 km
96766 12a Lihue WSO AP 1020.1, HI 7.3 km
96769 12a Makaweli 965, HI 4.5 km
96796 12b Waimea 947, HI 0.9 km

ZIP-code positions are area centroids, so a large rural ZIP code's listed distance is measured from the middle of its area rather than from any particular address in it.

What survives the winter changes across Kauai County

Zone 12a carries 14 of 74 perennial edibles; zone 12a carries 14.

Hardiness ranges are a judgement, published by growers rather than measured; the zone they are compared against is measured. On a warm-end verdict, check with your local extension service — a coastal zone 8 and an inland zone 8 are not the same summer.

At least one station here freezes across the new year, which puts the two ends of a spread on opposite sides of the calendar. Drawing it would produce a bar spanning almost the whole year and meaning nothing, so none is drawn.

The 7 stations behind these numbers

The 7 NOAA stations serving Kauai County A relative sketch of where the stations sit, about 35 kilometres north to south. Each is named with its NOAA identifier in the station list on this page, which carries the same information as text. KANALOHULUHULU 1075, HI US (USC00513099)KILAUEA 1134, HI US (USC00514561)LIHUE WSO AP 1020.1, HI US (USW00022536)MAHAULEPU 941.1, HI US (USC00515710)MAKAWELI 965, HI US (USC00515864)PRINCEVILLE RCH 1117, HI US (USC00518165)WAIMEA 947, HI US (USC00519629) ~35 km north to south

All 7 NOAA stations whose normals this page quotes, spanning about 35 km north to south. Every one is named with its identifier in the station list below — this page does not single one out, because no one station speaks for a whole county.

A relative sketch, not a map with a projection: longitude is adjusted for latitude so the shape is not stretched, and there is no basemap. For the one station nearest a specific address, with its real distance, use the ZIP lookup above.

These are the stations this county's ZIP codes actually cite as nearest — not a claim that each one sits inside its boundary, since a rural ZIP legitimately reaches over it. Every figure above comes from them, and each is named so you can check it.

Station NOAA ID Last spring freeze First fall freeze Season
Kanalohuluhulu 1075, HI USC00513099 January 26 January 24 365 days
Kilauea 1134, HI USC00514561 no freeze recorded no freeze recorded 365 days
Lihue WSO AP 1020.1, HI USW00022536 no freeze recorded no freeze recorded 365 days
Mahaulepu 941.1, HI USC00515710 no freeze recorded no freeze recorded 365 days
Makaweli 965, HI USC00515864 no freeze recorded no freeze recorded 365 days
Princeville Rch 1117, HI USC00518165 no freeze recorded no freeze recorded 365 days
Waimea 947, HI USC00519629 no freeze recorded no freeze recorded 365 days

These are medians, not averages — NOAA publishes freeze dates as a probability distribution, and half of years freeze later than the date shown.

Your own ZIP

Work out your own dates

This page describes a whole county. Every tool below answers for one ZIP code, which is the grain the underlying data is published at.

Other places to compare

Kauai County sits in Hawaii. That page carries the whole state's zone spread, its metro areas, and every other county in it with a page here.

More of Hawaii

Gear

If you want to act on this

Each link opens an Amazon search rather than a product we picked. We have not tested these and do not rank them — the search is the honest version, and you choose.

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. That costs you nothing extra, and it buys no influence over anything on this site: the dates come from NOAA normals and the zones from the USDA, and no product affects either.

Sources

Where these numbers come from

Hardiness zones are the USDA 2023 Plant Hardiness Zone Map, published per ZIP code by PRISM at Oregon State. Freeze dates and growing-season lengths are NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, taken per station and cited above by name and NOAA ID.

County boundaries come from the Census ZCTA-to-county relation, which is what places each ZIP code — and which treats parishes, boroughs and census areas as county equivalents. No station is chosen to represent this county: every range above is taken across all of them and the count is stated, because picking one would be a judgement dressed as a measurement.