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

Irving gardeners can count on March 8 as the even-odds date for the last spring frost and November 24 as the even-odds date for the first fall frost, which adds up to 262 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, March 26, and the early fall date, November 6, each of which one year in ten fails to beat. Against a median of 229 days for the 100 cities on these pages, Irving has a season 33 days longer, 30th on the list.

Behind every date on this page is one weather station, Dallas Ft Worth AP (NOAA USW00003927), 4.0 miles north-west of Irving's internal point in the Census Bureau's files and about 560 feet up.

Last spring frost in Irving

NOAA gives February 17 as the date a spring freeze is still ahead in nine years out of ten, March 8 as the date it is still ahead in half of them, and March 26 as the date only one year in ten passes.

From the earliest date to the latest is 37 days, a middling band against the other 100 cities.

First fall frost in Irving

NOAA's early fall date for Irving is November 6, its even-odds date is November 24 and its late date is December 12; the first freeze has come by each of them in one, five and nine years out of ten.

36 days separate the early and late fall dates, a broad band compared with most cities here, so a fall crop in Irving should be planned against the early date, not the typical one.

The growing season in Irving

The season is somewhat longer than the middle of these pages. A typical year gives 262 days; nine years in ten give at least 236 days, and one in ten reaches 288 days. The swing is 26 days between typical and short, about average for these pages.

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 Dallas Ft Worth AP, so the dates above describe a real yearly event, not a rare one.

Hard freeze dates for Irving

NOAA's even-odds hard freeze dates for Irving are December 7 in fall and February 25 in spring, 13 days and 11 days from the matching 32°F dates. The late 28°F spring date, March 14, is the one that still catches blooms and young transplants one year in ten, and the early fall date, November 15, is when a hard freeze has arrived in one fall out of ten.

What this means for planting in Irving

Counting from March 8, University of New Hampshire Extension puts cabbage transplants out on February 8 and lettuce from February 8 to February 15, ahead of the last frost, and holds peppers until March 22 and beans until March 8 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.

The late date comes 18 days after the typical one; choose it for plants you cannot cover.

Irving's first frost leaves room for only 32 of the 34 fall crops, counting back NC State Extension's days to harvest and University of Georgia Extension's harvest allowance of 18 days; for the other 2 the last planting day falls before July. The slowest crop that still fits is collard greens, which needs 118 days before the early first frost and so must be in by July 11.

Worked example: planting broccoli for fall in Irving

Work through broccoli transplants for fall in Irving. The longest days to harvest NC State Extension gives is 80 days, plus University of Georgia Extension's allowance of 18 days, for 98 days in all. Subtract that from the typical first frost on November 24 and the last day to plant is August 18; subtract it from the early date on November 6 and it is July 31.

The two answers are 18 days apart, a wide enough gap that the early date is the safer one to follow in Irving.

Spring is the other end of the same arithmetic: University of New Hampshire Extension sets cabbage-family transplants out two to four weeks before the last frost, which from March 8 puts cabbage out on February 8.

The weather station behind these dates

The station is 4.0 miles north-west of the Census Bureau's internal point for Irving, near enough to be the city's reference record, though not in the same yard.

NOAA lists it at about 560 feet, higher than 39 and lower than 60 of the 100 stations in this set. In NOAA's file the record is marked S, meaning standard.

No elevation is available for Irving in the Census data we saved, so the station's height may or may not match your garden's. Compare nearby stations in the frost dates tool if it does not, and err toward the colder dates.

How Irving's frost dates compare

All three of the closest cities on these pages are within a hundred miles, led by Grand Prairie, TX at 12 miles, so their differences show how much a few miles can move a frost date.

• Grand Prairie, TX, 12 miles to the south: last frost March 20, first frost November 13, 236 days frost-free; the last frost is 12 days later than in Irving, and the season runs 26 days shorter.
• Dallas, TX (13 miles, east): spring frost ends 6 days sooner than in Irving, and the frost-free season is 10 days longer than Irving's. Its typical dates are March 2 and November 29, with 272 days frost-free.
• Arlington, TX lies 14 miles south-west of Irving. Typical last frost March 9, first frost November 21, 256 days between; its last frost is nearly the same as Irving's, and the season is about the same length as Irving's.

Take these dates further

Open the frost dates tool with this station already chosen to see the whole ladder of probability dates, or try the nearby stations in the same list. The spring planting planner and the fall planting planner turn the same dates into a full crop list, and the hardiness zone lookup tells you which perennials will survive the winter.

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

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

The frost and freeze dates are NOAA's U.S. Climate Normals for 1991–2020 (doi:10.25921/4ek7-fk11), copied from the station's own record without adjustment; NOAA's documentation defines each probability. The Census Bureau's 2024 Gazetteer places Irving on the map, and its Vintage 2024 estimates, 258,060 people here, decide which cities get a page.

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. Our methodology describes the tests behind every number.

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.