Kansas City, MO Frost Dates: Last Spring and First Fall Frost

Frost leaves Kansas City on April 4 and comes back on November 2 when the odds are even, a window of 211 days for tender plants.

Even odds are a coin toss, so plan around the safer edges: one spring in ten still has a freeze on or after April 20, and one fall in ten has its first freeze by October 21. Against the 100-city median of 229 days, Kansas City has 18 days less room before frost returns.

Behind every date on this page is one weather station, Kansas City Downtown AP (NOAA USW00013988), 2.5 miles west of Kansas City's internal point in the Census Bureau's files and about 740 feet up.

Kansas City's last spring frost, by chance

NOAA gives March 17 as the date a spring freeze is still ahead in nine years out of ten, April 4 as the date it is still ahead in half of them, and April 20 as the date only one year in ten passes.

From the earliest date to the latest is 34 days, a middling band against the other 100 cities.

Kansas City's first fall frost, by chance

NOAA's early fall date for Kansas City is October 21, its even-odds date is November 2 and its late date is November 16; the first freeze has come by each of them in one, five and nine years out of ten.

Fall frost keeps to a tight calendar in Kansas City: 26 days from the 10% date to the 90% date, less than in most of the 100 cities here.

Kansas City's frost-free season

A little less room than the middle of these pages, so count the days before you choose a variety. A short year costs just 20 days against a typical one (191 days against 211 days), so a season-length plan for Kansas City holds up in most years.

NOAA counts these days from its own simulations, so they will not equal the number of days between the two typical dates exactly. At Kansas City Downtown AP a night at or below 32°F turns up in 100% of years, which means these dates apply every winter.

28°F dates in Kansas City

Between a light frost and a hard freeze there is little room in Kansas City: the typical 28°F dates are November 11 and March 26, just 9 days and 9 days from the 32°F dates. One spring in ten still has a 28°F night on or after April 10, and one fall in ten sees the first by October 28.

Planting dates for Kansas City, counted from the frost dates

University of New Hampshire Extension sorts vegetables by how they cope with cold. Cool-season crops go out before the last frost: counting from April 4, cabbage transplants go in on March 7 and lettuce from March 7 to March 14. Tender crops wait until it has passed, with peppers going out on April 18 and beans sown on or after April 4. The University of New Hampshire Extension sheet gives peas no frost count at all; sow them as soon as the soil thaws.

Counting from the late date, April 20, instead of the typical one delays every after-frost crop by 16 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 Kansas City only 30 of the 34 crops in the fall planner have a last planting day in July or later, and the other 4 would have to go in before then, in spring or early summer. The slowest crop that still fits is Florence fennel, which needs 108 days before the early first frost and so must be in by July 5.

Worked example: tomatoes in Kansas City

Take tomatoes in Kansas City. The University of New Hampshire Extension rule is to set transplants out one to two weeks after the last frost. From April 4, the typical date, that means April 11 to April 18; from April 20, the late date, it means April 27 to May 4, a delay of 16 days.

Seeds start six to eight weeks before the set-out day, so counting back from the first day of the late window gives March 2 to March 16 for sowing indoors.

That leaves 170 days against 75 to 85 days for the plants to reach harvest, so even the late schedule fits in an early-frost year with 85 days to spare.

The weather station behind these dates

The station is 2.5 miles west of the Census Bureau's internal point for Kansas City, near enough to be the city's reference record, though not in the same yard.

At about 740 feet, it ranks above 59 and below 40 of the 100 stations used for these pages. Its completeness flag is S, which NOAA uses for a standard record.

Because the Census file has no elevation for Kansas City, 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.

Nearby cities and their frost dates

Overland Park, KS is a short hop at 18 miles; the other two cities below are farther out, so the list moves from local to regional.

• Overland Park, KS (18 miles, south-west): the last frost is 6 days later than in Kansas City, and the frost-free season is 9 days shorter than Kansas City's. Its typical dates are April 10 and October 29, with 202 days frost-free.
• Lincoln, NE, 162 miles to the north-west: last frost April 24, first frost October 13, 171 days frost-free; the last frost is 20 days later than in Kansas City, and the frost-free season is 40 days shorter than Kansas City's.
• Omaha, NE lies 168 miles north-west of Kansas City. Typical last frost April 16, first frost October 18, 183 days between; its last frost comes 12 days after Kansas City's, and it has 28 days less without frost.

Take these dates further

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 Kansas City, and the hardiness zone lookup answers what will overwinter.

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

For Missouri, the state planting pages copy the Extension calendar (MU Extension, University of Missouri) crop by crop and region by region: tomatoes in Missouri, peppers in Missouri, cucumbers in Missouri, summer squash in Missouri, green beans in Missouri, potatoes in Missouri. Set those windows beside the frost dates above.

Where these numbers come from

Every frost and freeze date comes from the station's entry in NOAA's U.S. Climate Normals for 1991–2020 (doi:10.25921/4ek7-fk11), with no adjustment, and NOAA's documentation explains what each probability means. The Census Bureau's 2024 Gazetteer places Kansas City on the map, and its Vintage 2024 estimates, 516,032 people here, decide which cities get a page.

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. See how we source every figure for the checks behind them.

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.