Amarillo, TX Frost Dates: Last Spring and First Fall Frost

Amarillo gardeners can count on April 13 as the even-odds date for the last spring frost and October 27 as the even-odds date for the first fall frost, which adds up to 195 days without a freeze in a typical year.

Because half of all years do worse than the typical date, the dates that matter for tender plants are the late spring date, April 29, and the early fall date, October 14, each of which one year in ten fails to beat. The median season across the 100 cities on these pages is 229 days; Amarillo comes up 34 days short of it, 73rd on the list.

The numbers belong to Amarillo, NOAA station USW00023047, which sits 7.4 miles east of the Census Bureau's internal point for Amarillo at an elevation of about 3,600 feet.

When is the last frost in Amarillo?

One year in ten has a freeze on or after April 29. In nine years out of ten there is still a freeze on or after March 29, and half of years see one on or after April 13.

From the 90% date to the 10% date is 31 days, a short span next to most cities here, which makes the spring calendar in Amarillo steadier than average.

Amarillo's first fall frost, by chance

A first freeze on or before October 14 happens one fall in ten. By October 27 half of years have had one, and by November 8 nine years in ten have.

Fall frost keeps to a tight calendar in Amarillo: 25 days from the 10% date to the 90% date, less than in most of the 100 cities here.

How long is the frost-free season in Amarillo?

That is shorter than most places on these pages, so days to maturity on the seed packet matter more than usual. There is little difference between a typical season (195 days) and a short one (176 days) in Amarillo: 19 days, less than in most of the cities covered here.

These figures are NOAA's own counts of freeze-free days across its simulated years, which is why they can differ a little from the days between the two typical dates. At Amarillo a night at or below 32°F turns up in 100% of years, which means these dates apply every winter.

28°F dates in Amarillo

A hard freeze follows the first frost quickly in Amarillo: the typical 28°F night arrives on November 5 in fall, only 9 days after the first 32°F one on October 27, and in spring the last one comes on April 2, 11 days before the last 32°F frost. Tender plants get little warning here. At the edges, a 28°F night on or after April 19 happens one spring in ten and one by October 22 one fall in ten; the nine-in-ten dates are March 13 and November 18.

Using Amarillo's frost dates in the garden

Counting from April 13, University of New Hampshire Extension puts cabbage transplants out on March 16 and lettuce from March 16 to March 23, ahead of the last frost, and holds peppers until April 27 and beans until April 13 or later. Peas have no frost-based date in the University of New Hampshire Extension sheet: they go in as soon as the soil thaws.

From the late date, April 29, every tender crop moves back 16 days; that buys protection against a spring only one year in ten brings.

Fall crops are counted back from the first frost, using NC State Extension's days to harvest plus University of Georgia Extension's harvest allowance of 18 days. In Amarillo only 29 of the 34 crops in the fall planner have a last planting day in July or later, and the other 5 would have to go in before then, in spring or early summer. The slowest crop that still fits is Chinese cabbage, which needs 103 days before the early first frost and so must be in by July 3.

Worked example: a tomato plan for Amarillo

A gardener in Amarillo who follows University of New Hampshire Extension sets tomato transplants out one to two weeks after the last frost: April 20 to April 27 from the typical date of April 13, or May 6 to May 13 from the late date of April 29, 16 days later.

Indoors, tomato seeds go in six to eight weeks ahead of set-out; from the first day of the late window that is March 11 to March 25.

That leaves 154 days against 75 to 85 days for the plants to reach harvest, so even the late schedule fits in an early-frost year with 69 days to spare.

About the Amarillo station

At 7.4 miles east, the station is some distance from Amarillo, so parts of the city may not match its record.

At about 3,600 feet, it ranks above 92 and below 7 of the 100 stations used for these pages. NOAA flags this station's record as standard, the code S, for the data behind its 50% last-frost value.

The Census Gazetteer gives no elevation for Amarillo itself, so this page cannot tell you whether your garden sits above or below the station. If it is noticeably higher or lower, compare the stations the frost dates tool lists nearby and lean toward the colder reading.

Nearby cities and their frost dates

Of the cities on these pages, Lubbock, TX is closest to Amarillo at 113 miles, with two more farther out; none is a close neighbor.

• Lubbock, TX (113 miles, south): its last frost comes 9 days before Amarillo's, and the season runs 15 days longer. Its typical dates are April 4 and November 2, with 210 days frost-free.
• Oklahoma City, OK (244 miles, east): the last frost is 9 days earlier than in Amarillo, and it has 18 days more without frost. Its typical dates are April 4 and November 2, with 213 days frost-free.
• Albuquerque, NM, 272 miles to the west: last frost April 15, first frost October 27, 193 days frost-free; its last frost falls within a few days of Amarillo's, and the season is about the same length as Amarillo's.

Take these dates further

To go beyond the crops above, use the spring planting planner and fall planting planner, both set to this station. The frost dates tool shows the full odds for Amarillo, and the hardiness zone lookup gives the winter-cold zone for your ZIP code.

Every city covered is on the city frost dates index, sorted by state.

For Texas, the state planting pages copy the Extension calendar (Texas A&M AgriLife Extension) crop by crop and region by region: tomatoes in Texas, peppers in Texas, cucumbers in Texas, summer squash in Texas, green beans in Texas. Set those windows beside the frost dates above.

Where these numbers come from

NOAA's U.S. Climate Normals for 1991–2020 (doi:10.25921/4ek7-fk11) supply every frost date here, unchanged from the station's record, and NOAA's documentation defines the probabilities. The city and its internal point come from the Census Bureau's 2024 Gazetteer of places, and the ranking by size from the Census Bureau's Vintage 2024 city and town population estimates, which put Amarillo at 203,729 people.

Planting dates here are those rules from University of New Hampshire Extension, NC State Extension and University of Georgia Extension, applied to this station's frost dates and nothing else. See how we source every figure for the checks behind them.

NOAA's dates say how often frost has come, not when it will. Check the forecast before planting and keep a cover on hand.