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

In a typical year the final freeze of spring reaches Laredo around January 25, and the first freeze of autumn returns around December 17. NOAA's normals call the frost-free stretch between them 329 days long.

Dates at even odds leave half of all years unprotected. The safer pair for Laredo is February 25 in spring, which only one year in ten passes, and November 23 in fall, which one year in ten arrives before. Among the 100 cities covered here, whose median season is 229 days, Laredo ranks 12th for length, with 100 days more than the middle.

NOAA measured them at Laredo 2 (station USC00415060), about 0.8 miles north-west of the Census Bureau's internal point for Laredo and about 430 feet above sea level.

Laredo's last spring frost, by chance

Read the table from the top: a freeze on or after February 25 is a one-in-ten winter, after January 25 is a coin toss, and after December 25 is the usual case.

There are 62 days between the early and late dates, a broader band than most cities on these pages show. In Laredo the typical date is a weaker promise than it looks.

When is the first frost in Laredo?

NOAA's early fall date for Laredo is November 23, its even-odds date is December 17 and its late date is January 19; the first freeze has come by each of them in one, five and nine years out of ten.

The fall dates spread over 57 days, wider than for most cities on these pages. One year in ten brings the first freeze 24 days ahead of the typical date.

Laredo's frost-free season

With a season well beyond the middle of these pages, Laredo has days to spare for slow crops, as the planting dates below show. The gap between a typical year and a short one is 41 days, wider than for most cities on these pages. Count on 288 days, not 329 days, when a crop has little slack.

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. Not every winter reaches freezing at Laredo 2: only 89.5% of years record a night at or below 32°F, so in the other 10.5% there is no last or first frost to date. Treat the dates as the timing of the risk, not a promise that frost will come.

When a hard freeze reaches Laredo

Light frost and hard freeze are well separated in Laredo. In fall the typical 28°F night comes on December 30, 13 days after the first 32°F frost on December 17; in spring the last one comes on January 8, 17 days before the last 32°F frost. Crops that tolerate light frost have that stretch to themselves. At the edges, a 28°F night on or after February 11 happens one spring in ten and one by December 5 one fall in ten; the nine-in-ten dates are December 14 and February 1.

Using Laredo's frost dates in the garden

In Laredo the University of New Hampshire Extension count lands like this, measured from the typical last frost on January 25: lettuce from December 28 to January 4, cabbage on December 28, seed potatoes from January 11 to January 18, then peppers on February 8 and beans from January 25. 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, February 25, falls 31 days after the typical one, so counting from it pushes every tender crop back by more than three weeks. In Laredo that is a real choice between earlier planting with cover on hand and later planting with none.

Laredo's first frost leaves room for only 33 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 1 the last planting day falls before July. The slowest crop that still fits is bulb onions, at 138 days, and it has to be planted by July 8 to beat the early date.

Worked example: the last day for fall broccoli in Laredo

Broccoli transplants need up to 80 days to reach harvest by NC State Extension's table, and University of Georgia Extension adds 18 days to harvest, so 98 days must pass before frost. In Laredo the last planting day is September 10 against the typical first frost on December 17, and August 17 against the early date on November 23.

That is 24 days between the typical and the early schedule; broccoli planted on the later of them risks a frost before harvest in one fall out of ten.

The same crop family has a spring clock too. University of New Hampshire Extension sets cabbage out ahead of the last frost, and from January 25 in Laredo that means on December 28.

About the Laredo 2 station

The station is 0.8 miles north-west of the Census Bureau's internal point for Laredo, close enough that its record is the natural reference for the city.

At about 430 feet, it ranks above 31 and below 68 of the 100 stations used for these pages. In NOAA's file the record is marked S, meaning standard.

No elevation is available for Laredo 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 Laredo's frost dates compare

The nearest city on these pages is San Antonio, TX, 144 miles away, and the other two below are farther out, so these are regional comparisons, not neighbors.

• San Antonio, TX (144 miles, north-east): its last frost comes 31 days after Laredo's, and the frost-free season is 52 days shorter than Laredo's. Its typical dates are February 25 and November 28, with 277 days frost-free.
• Austin, TX (216 miles, north-east): spring frost lingers 26 days longer than in Laredo, and the season runs 38 days shorter. Its typical dates are February 20 and December 3, with 291 days frost-free.
• Houston, TX (292 miles, north-east): spring frost lingers 8 days longer than in Laredo, and the season is within about a week of Laredo's. Its typical dates are February 2 and December 25, with 327 days frost-free.

Next steps for Laredo gardeners

Start with the spring planting planner for the whole crop list counted from these dates, and the fall planting planner for the last planting days. The frost dates tool shows every level of risk at this station, and the hardiness zone lookup covers winter survival for shrubs and perennials.

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

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. Laredo and its internal point are listed in the Census Bureau's 2024 Gazetteer of places; its place in the ranking comes from the Vintage 2024 population estimates, which count 261,260 residents.

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. 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.