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

Frost leaves Plano on March 7 and comes back on November 21 when the odds are even, a window of 259 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 March 29, and one fall in ten has its first freeze by November 2. Among the 100 cities covered here, whose median season is 229 days, Plano ranks 32nd for length, with 30 days more than the middle.

NOAA measured them at Richardson (station USC00417588), about 3.8 miles south of the Census Bureau's internal point for Plano and about 680 feet above sea level.

When is the last frost in Plano?

NOAA gives February 18 as the date a spring freeze is still ahead in nine years out of ten, March 7 as the date it is still ahead in half of them, and March 29 as the date only one year in ten passes.

The early and late dates are 39 days apart, about the spread most cities on these pages show.

When is the first frost in Plano?

Expect the first freeze of fall by November 21 in a typical year. One year in ten brings it by November 2, and nine in ten have had it by December 9.

The fall dates spread over 37 days, wider than for most cities on these pages. One year in ten brings the first freeze 19 days ahead of the typical date.

Plano's frost-free season

That is longer than most places on these pages, though not by enough to change which crops you can grow. The gap between a typical year and a short one is 27 days, wider than for most cities on these pages. Count on 232 days, not 259 days, when a crop has little slack.

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. Every winter in the record reached freezing at Richardson, so the dates above describe a real yearly event, not a rare one.

When a hard freeze reaches Plano

NOAA's even-odds hard freeze dates for Plano are December 4 in fall and February 24 in spring, 13 days and 11 days from the matching 32°F dates. At the edges, a 28°F night on or after March 12 happens one spring in ten and one by November 14 one fall in ten; the nine-in-ten dates are January 27 and December 26.

Using Plano's frost dates in the garden

The University of New Hampshire Extension sheet times each crop from the last frost. For Plano's typical date, March 7, that means cabbage on February 7, lettuce from February 7 to February 14, seed potatoes from February 21 to February 28, and, once the frost is behind you, peppers on March 21 and beans on or after March 7. Peas have no frost-based date in the University of New Hampshire Extension sheet: they go in as soon as the soil thaws.

From the late date, March 29, every tender crop moves back 22 days; that buys protection against a spring only one year in ten brings.

Plano'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, at 118 days, and it has to be planted by July 7 to beat the early date.

Worked example: the last day for fall broccoli in Plano

Take fall broccoli in Plano. NC State Extension lists up to 80 days from transplant to harvest, and University of Georgia Extension adds a harvest allowance of 18 days, so the plants need 98 days before the first frost. Counting back from the typical first frost, November 21, the last planting day is August 15. Counting back from the early date, November 2, it is July 27.

19 days separate the two last days, enough that in Plano the earlier one is worth following.

The same crop family has a spring clock too. University of New Hampshire Extension sets cabbage out ahead of the last frost, and from March 7 in Plano that means on February 7.

Where Plano's numbers are measured

The nearest usable station stands 3.8 miles south of Plano's internal point, near the city but not in it.

At about 680 feet, it ranks above 51 and below 48 of the 100 stations used for these pages. Its completeness flag is R, which NOAA uses for a representative record.

Because the Census file has no elevation for Plano, 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 Plano's frost dates compare

All three of the closest cities on these pages are within a hundred miles, led by McKinney, TX at 11 miles, so their differences show how much a few miles can move a frost date.

• McKinney, TX, 11 miles to the north-east: last frost March 17, first frost November 15, 241 days frost-free; its last frost comes 10 days after Plano's, and the season runs 18 days shorter.
• Dallas, TX (18 miles, south): spring frost ends 5 days sooner than in Plano, and it has 13 days more without frost. Its typical dates are March 2 and November 29, with 272 days frost-free.
• Irving, TX, 19 miles to the south-west: last frost March 8, first frost November 24, 262 days frost-free; spring frost ends about when it does in Plano, and frost-free days differ from Plano's by less than a week.

Take these dates further

To go beyond the crops above, use the spring planting planner and fall planting planner, both set to this station. The frost dates tool shows the full odds for Plano, and the hardiness zone lookup gives the winter-cold zone for your ZIP code.

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

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. Plano 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 293,286 residents.

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. Our methodology describes the tests behind every number.

Frost dates are long-term odds, not a forecast. Before you plant, check the local forecast for the coming week, and keep row cover or old sheets handy for the nights the odds get wrong.