Mesa, AZ Frost Dates: Last Spring and First Fall Frost

Mesa gardeners can count on February 1 as the even-odds date for the last spring frost and December 10 as the even-odds date for the first fall frost, which adds up to 312 days without a freeze in a typical year.

Dates at even odds leave half of all years unprotected. The safer pair for Mesa is February 28 in spring, which only one year in ten passes, and November 22 in fall, which one year in ten arrives before. Among the 100 cities covered here, whose median season is 229 days, Mesa ranks 17th for length, with 83 days more than the middle.

The numbers belong to E Mesa, NOAA station USC00022782, which sits 4.4 miles east of the Census Bureau's internal point for Mesa at an elevation of about 1,500 feet.

Last spring frost in Mesa

NOAA gives January 1 as the date a spring freeze is still ahead in nine years out of ten, February 1 as the date it is still ahead in half of them, and February 28 as the date only one year in ten passes.

The earliest and latest of these dates are 58 days apart, wider than for most of the 100 cities here. A freeze can still come 27 days after the typical date in Mesa, which is why the late date matters more here than in most places.

First fall frost in Mesa

A first freeze on or before November 22 happens one fall in ten. By December 10 half of years have had one, and by January 1 nine years in ten have.

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

Mesa's frost-free season

Mesa has far more frost-free days than the middle of these pages, and slow crops benefit most, as the planting dates below show. A typical year gives 312 days, but nine years in ten still give at least 280 days; 32 days separate the two, a larger swing than most cities here show, so a crop that needs the full typical season is a gamble in Mesa.

The season lengths come from NOAA's simulated years, not from subtracting one typical date from the other, so the two will not match to the day. At E Mesa, 98.2% of years have a night at or below 32°F. In the rest there is no last or first frost to date.

When a hard freeze reaches Mesa

A wide gap separates 32°F from 28°F here: the typical hard freeze arrives 16 days after the first frost in fall (December 26) and leaves 21 days before the last in spring (January 11). Frost-tolerant crops get a long extension at both ends. The late 28°F spring date, February 11, is the one that still catches blooms and young transplants one year in ten, and the early fall date, December 1, is when a hard freeze has arrived in one fall out of ten.

What this means for planting in Mesa

In Mesa the University of New Hampshire Extension count lands like this, measured from the typical last frost on February 1: lettuce from January 4 to January 11, cabbage on January 4, seed potatoes from January 18 to January 25, then peppers on February 15 and beans from February 1. Peas have no frost-based date in the University of New Hampshire Extension sheet: they go in as soon as the soil thaws.

27 days lie between the typical and late dates in Mesa, enough to decide whether you plant tender crops early with a cover ready or wait for a safer spring.

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 Mesa only 33 of the 34 crops in the fall planner have a last planting day in July or later, and the other 1 would have to go in before then, in spring or early summer. The slowest crop that still fits is bulb onions, which needs 138 days before the early first frost and so must be in by July 7.

Worked example: planting broccoli for fall in Mesa

Work through broccoli transplants for fall in Mesa. 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 December 10 and the last day to plant is September 3; subtract it from the early date on November 22 and it is August 16.

That is 18 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.

In spring the same family goes in earlier: counting from February 1, University of New Hampshire Extension puts cabbage transplants out on January 4, weeks ahead of the last frost.

About the E Mesa station

4.4 miles east of the city's internal point, the station is close but not on top of Mesa.

At about 1,500 feet, it ranks above 83 and below 16 of the 100 stations used for these pages. NOAA flags this station's record as representative, the code R, for the data behind its 50% last-frost value.

No elevation is available for Mesa 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.

Nearby cities and their frost dates

All three of the closest cities on these pages are within a hundred miles, led by Gilbert, AZ at 6.4 miles, so their differences show how much a few miles can move a frost date.

• Gilbert, AZ lies 6.4 miles south of Mesa. Typical last frost February 1, first frost December 11, 315 days between; its last frost is nearly the same as Mesa's, and the season is within about a week of Mesa's.
• Chandler, AZ, 11 miles to the south-west: last frost February 13, first frost December 5, 298 days frost-free; the last frost is 12 days later than in Mesa, and the frost-free season is 14 days shorter than Mesa's.
• Scottsdale, AZ (21 miles, north-west): the last frost is 5 days earlier than in Mesa, and it has 18 days more without frost. Its typical dates are January 27 and December 21, with 330 days frost-free.

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.

Looking for another city? The city frost dates index lists every page, grouped by state.

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 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 Mesa at 517,151 people.

The planting dates apply the count rules in University of New Hampshire Extension, NC State Extension and University of Georgia Extension to this station's dates, with nothing added. 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.