Greensboro, NC Frost Dates: Last Spring and First Fall Frost

Greensboro gardeners can count on April 1 as the even-odds date for the last spring frost and November 4 as the even-odds date for the first fall frost, which adds up to 217 days without a freeze in a typical year.

Dates at even odds leave half of all years unprotected. The safer pair for Greensboro is April 14 in spring, which only one year in ten passes, and October 23 in fall, which one year in ten arrives before. At 217 days, Greensboro's typical season sits close to the 229 days median of the 100 cities on these pages.

Behind every date on this page is one weather station, Greensboro WTP (NOAA USC00313625), 1.3 miles south-east of Greensboro's internal point in the Census Bureau's files and about 770 feet up.

When is the last frost in Greensboro?

NOAA gives March 18 as the date a spring freeze is still ahead in nine years out of ten, April 1 as the date it is still ahead in half of them, and April 14 as the date only one year in ten passes.

From the 90% date to the 10% date is 27 days, a short span next to most cities here, which makes the spring calendar in Greensboro steadier than average.

Greensboro's first fall frost, by chance

A first freeze on or before October 23 happens one fall in ten. By November 4 half of years have had one, and by November 19 nine years in ten have.

Fall frost keeps to a tight calendar in Greensboro: 27 days from the 10% date to the 90% date, less than in most of the 100 cities here.

Greensboro's frost-free season

That is close to the middle of the cities covered here. There is little difference between a typical season (217 days) and a short one (197 days) in Greensboro: 20 days, less than in most of the cities covered here.

NOAA counts these days from its own simulations, so they will not equal the number of days between the two typical dates exactly. Every winter in the record reached freezing at Greensboro WTP, so the dates above describe a real yearly event, not a rare one.

28°F dates in Greensboro

A hard freeze follows the first frost quickly in Greensboro: the typical 28°F night arrives on November 15 in fall, only 11 days after the first 32°F one on November 4, and in spring the last one comes on March 22, 10 days before the last 32°F frost. Tender plants get little warning here. One spring in ten still has a 28°F night on or after April 5, and one fall in ten sees the first by November 1.

What this means for planting in Greensboro

Counting from April 1, University of New Hampshire Extension puts cabbage transplants out on March 4 and lettuce from March 4 to March 11, ahead of the last frost, and holds peppers until April 15 and beans until April 1 or later. Peas are the exception to the count: University of New Hampshire Extension says to plant them as soon as the soil thaws, whatever the frost date.

Counting from the late date, April 14, instead of the typical one delays every after-frost crop by 13 days. That is the price of a one-in-ten spring that most years will not need.

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 Greensboro only 32 of the 34 crops in the fall planner have a last planting day in July or later, and the other 2 would have to go in before then, in spring or early summer. The slowest crop that still fits is lima/pole beans, which needs 113 days before the early first frost and so must be in by July 2.

Worked example: a tomato plan for Greensboro

Suppose you want tomatoes in Greensboro. University of New Hampshire Extension says to set transplants out one to two weeks after the last frost. Counting from the typical date, April 1, the window runs from April 8 to April 15. Counting from the late date, April 14, it moves to April 21 through April 28, which is 13 days later.

To have transplants ready on the first day of the late window, sow seeds six to eight weeks earlier, between February 24 and March 10.

Between the last set-out day and the early first frost on October 23 lie 178 days. Tomatoes need 75 to 85 days by NC State Extension's count, so the schedule has 93 days of slack even in an early-frost year.

Where Greensboro's numbers are measured

1.3 miles south-east of Greensboro's internal point is where the station stands, a very short distance.

Its elevation is about 770 feet. Of the 100 stations behind these pages, 38 sit higher and 61 lower. Its completeness flag is R, which NOAA uses for a representative record.

Because the Census file has no elevation for Greensboro, we cannot say how far your yard is above or below this station. When yours is clearly higher or lower, open the nearby stations in the frost dates tool and favor the colder one.

How Greensboro's frost dates compare

Three cities on these pages lie within a hundred miles of Greensboro, the nearest Winston-Salem, NC at 24 miles, which makes the comparison below a close one.

• Winston-Salem, NC lies 24 miles west of Greensboro. Typical last frost March 26, first frost November 9, 228 days between; its last frost comes 6 days before Greensboro's, and the frost-free season is 11 days longer than Greensboro's.
• Durham, NC lies 52 miles east of Greensboro. Typical last frost April 2, first frost November 4, 217 days between; its last frost falls within a few days of Greensboro's, and the season is within about a week of Greensboro's.
• Raleigh, NC, 69 miles to the east: last frost March 28, first frost November 8, 229 days frost-free; its last frost comes 4 days before Greensboro's, and the frost-free season is 12 days longer than Greensboro's.

Put the frost dates to work

The frost dates tool opens on this station and lists every probability date, not just the ones above. From there, the spring planting planner and fall planting planner turn the dates into crop lists for Greensboro, and the hardiness zone lookup answers what will overwinter.

All the cities on these pages are listed by state on the city frost dates index.

For North Carolina, the state planting pages copy the Extension calendar (NC State Extension) crop by crop and region by region: tomatoes in North Carolina, peppers in North Carolina, cucumbers in North Carolina, summer squash in North Carolina, green beans in North Carolina. 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 Greensboro at 307,381 people.

University of New Hampshire Extension, NC State Extension and University of Georgia Extension supply the planting rules; this page only counts them from the station's dates. The methodology page explains how each figure is checked.

These dates describe odds over many years, not next week's weather. Look at the forecast before you plant, and keep a sheet or row cover ready for a night that does not follow the odds.