Fruit Trees for Omak, Okanogan, Twisp, Winthrop and the Methow Valley, Washington

On January 30, 1996, the Winthrop station on the Methow Valley floor read −25°F. The Omak 4 N station, about 450 feet above the Okanogan River towns, read −4°F in the same cold snap. Two valleys with one range of hills between them, and 21°F apart. That gap, and the smaller ones inside each valley, are what decide fruit trees for Omak, Okanogan, Twisp, Winthrop and the Methow Valley.

This map covers the heart of Okanogan County in North Central Washington: the Okanogan valley from Malott to Janis, the Conconully hills, and the Methow from Carlton up through Twisp and Winthrop. Type your address in the box on the map to get the number for your own place, and the list of what we sell that has come through it.

How to read this map

The number on the map is the 30-year planning low, the number to plan for at that spot, and the same one our cold hardiness calculator uses. It leans to the safe side and isn't the record. The MFTC zone is that number in half zones. "Typical winter" is an average year's coldest night, the kind of number USDA zones are built on, which is why USDA puts Omak in 6a and we put it in 5a. The spring layer shows how much warmer or colder each spot runs than Omak on a still, clear night at bloom.

The middle of the growing ground plans for −20°F (MFTC 4b), but this map holds two different winters, so half the ground spreads from −25°F to −17°F. The warm end is the low buttes along the Okanogan, like Coleman Butte at Omak and Mount Olive by Riverside, at −14°F (MFTC 5b); the warmest twentieth runs −16°F or better. The cold end is the Methow floor: Twisp and Winthrop plan for −27°F (MFTC 4a), and the coldest twentieth runs −28°F or worse. Omak, the reference town, plans for −20°F (MFTC 5a, right at the line with 4b), typical winter around −3°F.

Why the map looks the way it does

Start with the two floors. The Okanogan's runs from about 810 feet at Malott to about 890 at Janis, the lowest ground on the map. The Methow's sits 600 to 900 feet higher, from about 1,430 feet at Carlton to 1,760 at Winthrop. Height explains a few degrees, but NOAA station records show the Winthrop station's yearly low running 12°F colder than the old Okanogan station's in the median year.

On a clear, calm night the ground radiates its heat to the sky, and the chilled air slides downhill and collects wherever the land flattens out. The Methow is a narrow valley walled in by the Cascades on three sides, and cold drains off the North Cascades down the upper Methow, Early Winters Creek, the Chewuch and the Twisp River onto the floor. Snow adds to it. Winthrop averages about 59 inches a year and Omak about 25, with far more up at Mazama, and air over snow runs colder because snow radiates well and cuts the air off from the soil's heat. Mazama's early name was Early Winters, for its deep valley and short winter daylight.

The cold is a layer on the floor, not the whole sky. Winthrop runs 9°F colder in the median year than the First Butte station, 3,750 feet higher. In the December 22, 2022 cold snap, Winthrop read −26°F, the Muckamuck station at 4,470 feet −17°F and Douglas Ingram Ridge at 3,560 feet −10°F. On the map, McClure Mountain, 3 miles south of Twisp, plans for −13°F, 14°F warmer than town, though it's above where fruit grows.

The hills make cold sinks of their own. The old Twisp 10 W station, 2,201 feet up the Twisp River, ran 8°F colder in the median year than Conconully at about the same height; side-valley bottoms often run colder than the main floor. Conconully, on the Salmon Creek bottom, runs 4°F colder than the Omak 4 N station a thousand feet below it, because it's a floor of its own. Height only helps when the cold has somewhere lower to go.

The Okanogan is milder for the opposite reasons: it's lower, the state apple commission calls it wide where the Methow is narrow, it gets well under half of Winthrop's snow, and it drains on south to the Columbia. There's no open water to count on, and a river floor is still a floor. Around Omak the floor plans for −19°F and the benches −16°F, and the low buttes 240 to 870 feet above the river (Three Buttes, Coleman Butte, Mount Olive, Glover Mountain, Jackass Butte and North Omak) plan for −14°F to −16°F. That's the thermal belt, slope ground the night's cold slides past. Higher up it fades: Pogue Mountain, at 2,772 feet, plans for −20°F, about the same as the floor.

Two kinds of night flatten or flip the pattern. Deep arctic air can fill the whole valley: on February 9, 1933, the floor station at Okanogan and the Omak 4 N station, about 450 feet up, both hit −23°F. And when cold arrives on a wind there's no inversion, and higher ground runs colder. February 2, 1989 read that way: First Butte −25°F, Winthrop −15°F and the Methow 2 S station, down the valley at 1,135 feet, −7°F. The map shows the calm, clear-night pattern.

The spring layer runs the same drainage at full strength. The buttes above the Okanogan read 15°F to 18°F warmer than Omak at bloom, and most floor towns within 2°F of it either way. It reads Twisp 3°F warmer and Winthrop 1°F colder than Omak, but it compares terrain only and doesn't know the Methow's later, snowier spring. NOAA's frost dates do: Winthrop's median last 32°F is May 18, eight days after the Omak station's.

Omak, East Omak, South Omak and North Omak

Omak grew in a curve of the Okanogan River in the foothills of the Okanogan Highlands, its 1907 townsite cut from an alfalfa field. The town point sits on the floor at 845 feet and plans for −20°F (MFTC 5a), typical winter around −3°F. Within 3 miles the floor runs −19°F, the benches −16°F, the warmest tenth −15°F. The name is a Salishan word read as "good medicine" or "plenty," said to refer to the mild weather.

The warm ground is up off the river. Three Buttes, northwest of town and only 240 feet up, plans for −16°F and reads 16°F warmer than town at bloom. Coleman Butte, which adjoins the city, plans for −14°F (MFTC 5b) 600 feet up and reads 18°F warmer. North Omak, partly on the Colville Reservation, sits on a steep hillside 440 feet up at −15°F, typical winter around 0°F. East Omak and South Omak lots on the flat take the floor's −19°F to −20°F, and any lot up the slope gains.

The Omak station, about 450 feet above the floor, hasn't recorded colder than −13°F (January 13, 2024) since its records start in 1999, yet the map plans for −16°F there. On the floor plant Honeycrisp and Liberty apples, D'Anjou pear and Italian plum; save Wenatchee Moorpark apricot, Contender peach and Rainier cherry for the buttes. Rainier suits this dry country, since it cracks where it rains at ripening.

Okanogan, North Alma and Pogue Flat

Okanogan, the county seat, sits on the west bank where Salmon Creek comes in, about 5 miles southwest of Omak; North Alma, platted just north of the creek, later merged into town. The town point is river bottom at 845 feet and plans for −20°F (MFTC 4b, a hair colder than Omak), typical winter around −3°F, 2°F warmer than Omak at bloom. Within 3 miles the floor runs −20°F and the benches −17°F.

Salmon Creek comes down from the Conconully hills, and on still nights a creek valley carries cold air down the way it carries water, onto the floor at its mouth. Jackass Butte, about a mile east of town and 870 feet above the floor, plans for −16°F and reads 16°F warmer than Omak at bloom; Glover Mountain, north toward Omak, plans for −15°F (MFTC 5b). Pogue Flat, near town, is where irrigation was first pushed, with Joseph Pogue's 1888 ditch off Salmon Creek. The floor takes Bartlett pear, Stanley plum and Montmorency tart cherry; the butte slopes take Lapins cherry and the SnowCzar almond.

Malott, Ophir and the south end

The south end is the lowest ground on the map. Malott, on the west bank about 9 miles southwest of Okanogan, and Ophir and Wakefield below it sit around 810 to 825 feet. Malott, Chillowist and Ophir plan for −20°F and Wakefield −19°F, all MFTC 5a, within 2°F of Omak at bloom.

This is where the April 16, 2026 freeze is on record. Rick DeLap's Malott orchard hit 23°F with nine wind machines and water running, 7°F or 8°F below critical by his count, and he ended near 10 percent of a normal cherry crop. A wind machine only gains a third to a half of the inversion above it, so it can't close a gap that big.

The warm band sits up the hillsides: Salt Hill, east of the river at 2,925 feet, plans for −19°F and reads 18°F warmer than Omak at bloom, while Olema, in the hills west of Malott, plans for −23°F (MFTC 4b). For cherries on the floor, the tart ones are safer: Evan's Bali is good to at least −40°F to −45°F.

Riverside, Cherokee, Keystone and Janis

North of Omak the floor climbs only a little. Riverside, sometimes counted as part of Greater Omak, plans for −18°F (MFTC 5a), 1°F warmer than Omak at bloom; within 3 miles the floor runs −18°F and the benches −16°F. Cherokee, Keystone and Barker also plan for −18°F. Janis, in a cold-air drainage channel at the north end, reads 4°F colder than Omak at bloom, the worst spring reading of any named spot on the Okanogan floor.

Mount Olive, just southwest of Riverside, plans for −14°F (MFTC 5b) 610 feet above the floor and reads 18°F warmer than Omak at bloom; Short Mountain, west of Keystone, plans for −15°F, 15°F warmer. Those are apricot and peach slopes. At Janis, lean on apples, pears and Honeyberry, whose open flowers take 19°F.

Conconully, Ruby and the hills between the valleys

Conconully, about 17 miles northwest of Okanogan, was the county seat from 1888 to 1914. It sits on the floor at 2,282 feet between two reservoirs (we found no published ice dates for them, so don't count on them) and plans for −22°F (MFTC 4b), typical winter around −7°F, 5°F colder than Omak at bloom. Its NOAA station recorded −31°F on December 28, 1968.

Ruby, the first county seat and now a ghost town, plans for −21°F (MFTC 4b), and Brown Lake, on a hillside 970 feet above its floor, −20°F, 8°F warmer than Omak at bloom. Two spots within 300 feet of each other in height can still sit 5°F apart: Mowich Illahee, in a draw at 3,353 feet, plans for −23°F, while Paradise Hill, an open slope at 3,078 feet about 15 miles south, plans for −18°F (MFTC 5a). Plant for −25°F or colder here: Haralson apple, Ure pear, and Toka and Superior plums (Toka pollenizes Superior; our pollination maps show who pollenizes what), with Sungold apricot on the warm hillsides.

Twisp, Carlton and the Twisp River

Twisp sits at about 1,600 feet where the Twisp River meets the Methow. The town point plans for −27°F (MFTC 4a), typical winter around −10°F, and reads 3°F warmer than Omak on the spring layer; within 3 miles the floor runs −27°F and the benches −25°F. Carlton, 8 miles south on the river bottom, plans for −26°F (MFTC 4a). The old Twisp 10 W station up the Twisp River had the coldest average yearly low on the map, −20°F, with a record of −33°F three times. The 1968 to 1969 winter destroyed the productive orchards around Twisp.

Twisp River Organic Apples, on a sunny bench 2 miles up the river facing just east of south, shows both sides of bench ground. The Murray family grows 28 apple and five pear varieties there and uses locally hardy Yellow Transparent as rootstock for 80 trees; the old-timers' advice was "Get the hardiest of everything." On April 24, 2013, it hit 23°F there and cost 70 percent of the crop; a south-facing bench blooms earlier, into frost season. On this floor plant trees rated −30°F or colder, like Zestar!® apple, Kerr applecrab and Summercrisp pear. Blushingstar came through −25°F at our place (January 13, 2024), right at the bench number, so it's worth a try on the best bench ground.

Winthrop, Sun Mountain and Mazama

Winthrop sits at about 1,760 feet where the Chewuch joins the Methow, with Heckendorn at its south end. It plans for −27°F (MFTC 4a), typical winter around −11°F, 1°F colder than Omak on the spring layer; within 3 miles the floor runs −27°F and the benches −25°F. The Winthrop station's own 30-year number is −27°F, its coldest since 1995 was −26°F (December 2022), and its record is −32°F (January 30, 1950). Washington's state record low, −48°F on December 30, 1968, is credited to Winthrop and Mazama, though that reading isn't in the NOAA daily records we pulled for either station. That winter destroyed most of the remaining apple orchards in the upper Methow.

The hills around town hold a cold thermal belt. Lewis Butte, northwest of town at 3,322 feet, plans for −25°F (MFTC 4a) and reads 9°F warmer than Omak at bloom; Patterson Mountain, southwest of town, plans for −24°F. Patterson Lake, below Sun Mountain west of town, is an ice-fishing lake, so it does nothing for its shore in midwinter. Hay meadows, the upper valley's old mainstay, run cold: low ground, with tall grass that chills the surface on frost nights. Mazama, 14 miles up the valley, read −29°F on January 12, 2024, to Winthrop's −22°F, yet gets 134 frost-free days to Winthrop's 124. Around Winthrop add Lodi and Paula Red apples, Meteor tart cherry, Westcot apricot and Montana Black Currant, which has never shown us winter damage.

Spring frost and bloom in the Okanogan and the Methow

NOAA station records for 1991 to 2020 put the median last 32°F at May 4 on Douglas Ingram Ridge (3,560 feet, just south of the map), May 10 at the Omak station, May 18 at Winthrop and June 16 at Salmon Meadows (4,460 feet), with frost-free seasons of 167, 143, 124 and 86 days. One year in ten the last 32°F comes after May 23 at Omak and after June 8 at Winthrop. The last 28°F, where open blossoms of nearly every tree fruit start dying, comes around April 20 at Omak and May 1 at Winthrop. The ridge drains its cold; the high meadow collects it.

On April 16, 2026, after a light winter pushed flowers early, a freeze took most or all of the crop in many Okanogan County cherry, apple and pear orchards; most growers lost over 80 percent, and the county declared a disaster. That same spring froze bloom across Montana too (15°F at Ed Schultz's in Gallatin Gateway, and no fruit). In April 2008, though, the coldest April 1 to 20 on record from Wenatchee north, Okanogan growers came through fine.

Only about 15 percent of apple blossoms need to set for a crop, and sweet cherries can lose half their flowers and still crop. The Twisp River's first apple bloom comes in the first to third week of May, weeks behind Wenatchee's average full bloom of April 27; late bloom dodges April freezes but lands right on Winthrop's median last 32°F.

So site first. Apricots, peaches and sweet cherries go highest, on the Okanogan buttes and slopes where the spring layer reads warm; apples, pears and plums can take the floor; Honeyberry, currants and gooseberries go in the cold spots. A north slope holds early bloomers back, and an east slope warms quickly on a frosty morning. Don't let a hedge or tree line across the slope back cold air into the trees above it. Through bloom, mow under 2 inches, don't till, and water a day or two before a frost. Frost cloth of 0.5, 0.9 and 1.5 ounces per square yard gains about 4°F, 6°F and 8°F, and fans only help on still, clear nights.

What the weather records say

The coldest readings on file at NOAA stations here are Twisp 10 W's −33°F, Winthrop's and Mazama's −32°F, Conconully's −31°F, the −23°F that Omak 4 N and Okanogan both hit on February 9, 1933, and the Omak station's −13°F. The big outbreaks ran the Methow far colder almost every time: January 29, 1969 (Winthrop −31°F, Omak 4 N −13°F), December 31, 1978 (Winthrop −30°F, Omak 4 N −17°F) and January 12, 2024 (Mazama −29°F, Winthrop −22°F, Omak −13°F).

USDA's 2023 map puts Omak in zone 6a, built on an average winter's coldest night. NOAA station records show the worst night in about 30 winters runs a median 13°F below that average, which is why our zones usually read a full zone or more colder. This is rain-shadow country: Winthrop gets a little over half of Mazama's precipitation, about 15 inches a year, and Omak under 12, and dry, clear air loses heat fast at night. Chinook winds can lift Winthrop to 71°F, and trees lose hardiness over a few warm days and win it back only a little each cold day.

What you can grow here

Okanogan buttes and benches, −17°F or warmer

Plant the early bloomers here: Wenatchee Moorpark, Harlayne and Goldrich apricots, Contender, Redstar and Blushingstar peaches, Hardired nectarine, Rainier, Skeena and Lapins sweet cherries, and the SnowCzar almond. Contender is the only commercial peach we know of that has taken −32°F.

The Okanogan floor, −18°F to −20°F

Trees rated −25°F or colder live here; bloom is the risk. Apples: Honeycrisp, Liberty, Ashmead's Kernel and Spartan. Pears: D'Anjou (more cold hardy than you'd think), Bartlett and Seckel. Plums: Italian, Stanley and Shiro. Tart cherries: Montmorency and Evan's Bali. Also Concord grape, the Purvis Hardy English walnut, Boyne raspberry and Red Lake currant.

Conconully and the hill country, −20°F to −23°F

Plant for −25°F or colder: Haralson, Spartan and Golden Russet apples, Ure and Bartlett pears, Toka and Superior plums, Meteor tart cherry, and on warm hillsides Sungold apricot, Gold sweet cherry and Siberian C peach, the hardiest peach we think is out there. Keep early bloomers out of the draws.

The Methow floor and benches, −24°F to −28°F

Plant trees rated −30°F or colder. Apples: Zestar!®, Paula Red, Lodi, Honeycrisp, Haralson and Wealthy. Applecrabs: Kerr and Trailman (if you only plant one tree, make it one of these). Pears: Ure, Summercrisp and Luscious. Plums: Toka, Superior and Mount Royal. Cherries: Evan's Bali and Meteor tart, and Lapins and Gold sweet on the benches (a grower of ours in Cowley, Wyoming saw no damage on Lapins at −33°F). Apricots: Westcot and Sungold on the benches. Peaches: Siberian C and Contender on the best bench ground. Grapes: Valiant. Berries: Honeyberry, Montana Black Currant, Red Lake currant, Pixwell gooseberry and Boyne raspberry. The season is short: Winthrop's 124 frost-free days fall under the 135 that the University of Vermont's orchard people treat as short-season country, and its median first fall 32°F is September 22, so favor early and midseason apples and pears over late keepers.

The coldest draws and up the Twisp River, colder than −28°F

Stick to plants rated −40°F or colder: Kerr, Trailman and Centennial applecrabs (Ed Schultz saw zero winter injury on Centennial after a winter that hit −47°F), Dolgo crabapple, Bolshaya pear, Ptitsin #5 and Brookgold plums, Debbie's Gold apricot, Nanking Cherry, Serviceberry and Honeyberry.

Rootstocks, water and local problems

Roots are the weak link, and snow protects them. The upper Methow holds snow much of the winter, and Bud 118 has seen near −50°F under snow at Ed Schultz's farm with no rootstock damage. The Okanogan gets far less snow and steep butte slopes can blow bare, so there use the hardiest stock, mulch, and keep the soil moist into winter. Use drip irrigation, and in the Methow taper water from mid-August so trees harden off; an early fall freeze kills at temperatures a hardened tree shrugs off in January. Plant on a 4 to 8 percent slope, ideally facing east, off the windswept top and out of the bottom, with at least 6 hours of sun. Besides frost, the local troubles are wildfire (the 2014 Carlton Complex burned fruit trees, irrigation systems and fencing), short irrigation water, bears outside orchard fences, crows, yellow jackets on the drops, and late-summer thunderstorms that knock fruit down.

Fruit history here

The Okanogan Irrigation Project, approved in 1905, was the first US Reclamation Service project in Washington, storing Salmon Creek water near Conconully for Pogue Flat and the land around Omak and Okanogan. The water ran out by August 1, 1911 and drought from 1915 drove many orchardists off, yet by 1954 the project ranked fifth in the nation with 626,677 apple trees. A severe freeze in 1948 destroyed a number of orchards around Okanogan, and the industry recovered by 1955.

In the Methow, commercial orchards went in as early as 1890, and the first carload of apples shipped from Pateros to Boston in 1914 at no profit; the rail spur was never built, and drought from 1913 made apples unprofitable. The 1948 flood took out every bridge in the valley. Today most of the region's big orchards sit along the Columbia in warmer spots. For Colville and Kettle Falls or Yakima, Ellensburg and the Kittitas Valley, see those maps.

Questions people ask

What growing zone is Omak, Washington?

USDA's 2023 map puts Omak in zone 6a, built on an average winter's coldest night (our map puts that night around −3°F on the floor). We plan for the bad night: town plans for −20°F (MFTC 5a), and the buttes around it −14°F to −16°F. On the floor, plant trees that have come through −25°F or colder.

What zone is Winthrop, WA?

We couldn't confirm USDA's 2023 zone for Winthrop; the Winthrop station's average yearly low over its whole record is −16°F. Our planning low for town is −27°F (MFTC 4a), with the benches around −25°F. Plant trees that have come through −30°F or colder.

Why is Winthrop so cold?

Winthrop sits on the floor of a narrow valley walled in by the Cascades, where cold air drains off the mountains and settles over deep snow. NOAA station records show it running 12°F colder than Okanogan and 9°F colder than First Butte, 3,750 feet higher, in the median year. Washington's state record low, −48°F on December 30, 1968, is credited to Winthrop and Mazama, though NOAA's daily records for those stations don't show it.

When is the last frost in Omak and the Methow Valley?

For 1991 to 2020, the median last 32°F was May 10 at the Omak station, May 15 at Mazama and May 18 at Winthrop. One year in ten it comes after May 23 at Omak and after June 8 at Winthrop. The last 28°F, where open blossoms start dying, comes around April 20 at Omak and May 1 at Winthrop.

Can you grow cherries in Okanogan County?

Yes. Malott grows them commercially, but the April 16, 2026 freeze hit 23°F there and most growers lost over 80 percent of the crop. Lapins and Gold have come through −35°F and Rainier −30°F, so the trees live here; put sweet cherries on the buttes, which read 15°F to 18°F warmer than Omak at bloom, or grow tart cherries like Evan's Bali on the floor.

What fruit trees grow in the Methow Valley?

Apples first: a Twisp River bench orchard grows 28 varieties. On the floor, which plans for −26°F to −27°F, plant trees rated −30°F or colder, like Zestar!®, Haralson and Honeycrisp apples, Ure pear, Toka and Superior plums, Evan's Bali tart cherry and Honeyberry. Winthrop gets 124 frost-free days, so favor early and midseason ripeners.

Warmer spots, colder spots

Here's the number to plan for at named places on the map, warmest first. Each one is the 1-in-30-year low for that spot: the cold hardiness calculator's number from the same weather stations, sharpened by our microclimate model for the ground right there. Zone is our MFTC zone, set by that one bad night, not by an average.

The weather stations behind it

These are the long-record stations in and around this map, with each one's own numbers since the winter of 1995-96. The last column is this map's 30-year number right at the station, which won't match the station exactly: it's a blend of the stations around it, the way the calculator works everywhere.

Source: NOAA records through ACIS, winters 1995-96 through 2025-26. What the "carried forward," "gaps filled" and AWOS rows mean is explained in how our microclimate maps work.