Frost Dates by Location: Last Spring and First Fall Frost Near You

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Frost dates at twelve reference weather stations (NOAA 1991-2020 normals, 32 °F)

Station	Typical last spring frost	Late last frost (1 year in 10)	Typical first fall frost	Early first frost (1 year in 10)	Frost-free days, typical year
Minneapolis/St Paul AP, Minnesota	Apr 23	May 7	Oct 18	Oct 1	176
Denver Intl AP, Colorado	May 5	May 19	Oct 9	Sep 27	156
Chicago O'Hare Intl AP, Illinois	Apr 16	May 1	Oct 28	Oct 15	193
Boston Logan Intl AP, Massachusetts	Apr 4	Apr 17	Nov 9	Oct 29	218
Kansas City Intl AP, Missouri	Apr 13	Apr 29	Oct 24	Oct 9	193
Salt Lake City Intl AP, Utah	Apr 8	Apr 30	Oct 31	Oct 17	204
New York Cntrl Pk TWR, New York	Mar 30	Apr 9	Nov 20	Nov 6	236
Raleigh Durham Intl AP, North Carolina	Mar 31	Apr 16	Nov 4	Oct 23	219
Atlanta Hartsfield Intl AP, Georgia	Mar 15	Apr 4	Nov 20	Nov 4	252
Seattle Tacoma Intl AP, Washington	Mar 2	Mar 23	Nov 23	Nov 6	266
Austin Bergstrom AP, Texas	Mar 12	Apr 2	Nov 16	Nov 1	252
Sacramento Executive AP, California	Feb 2	Mar 5	Dec 2	Nov 16	301

In short: Type a ZIP code, pick your state and weather station, or let the page find the stations nearest you. You get the typical last spring frost, a later date that only one year in ten beats, the typical first fall frost, an early date to watch for, and how many frost-free days to expect.

What the lookup gives you

Every planting decision in a cold-winter garden hangs on two dates: when the last frost of spring is behind you, and when the first frost of fall arrives. This page reads both from the U.S. Climate Normals published by NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information, the federal agency that keeps the nation's weather records. The normals cover 1991–2020, and they include frost and freeze probabilities for 7,247 weather stations across all 50 states.

A frost date belongs to a place with a thermometer, so even when you type a ZIP code the answer is a station's, not the ZIP code's. The page places the ZIP code at the point the Census Bureau's gazetteer of ZIP Code Tabulation Areas gives for it, then lists the closest stations by straight-line distance. The result names the station, its elevation and how far it is from that point, or from you if you share your location instead, so you can judge whether its weather is your weather.

Three dates instead of one

A single "average last frost date" hides the part that matters. NOAA does not publish one date; it publishes the odds. For each station it ran 10,000 simulated years built from that station's real nightly lows, and recorded when the last spring night at or below freezing came in each one. From those runs it reports a date for each level of risk.

The result card turns those odds into plain words:

• Typical last spring frost is the date with even odds. Half of years have one more frost on or after it, so planting tomatoes on that day is a coin toss.
• The late date is the one only one year in ten beats. If you set out tender plants after it, you will lose them to a late frost about once a decade. This is the date to use for anything you cannot cover or replace.
• Typical first fall frost and the early fall date work the same way at the other end of the season. The early date is when one year in ten has already had its first frost, so it is the safer deadline for a fall crop to finish.

Open "Frost odds by date" under the result for the full ladder of dates, from the riskiest to the safest. NOAA only computes these dates where at least 10% of years reach freezing, so a station where frost is rare says so instead of inventing a date.

Worked example: Minneapolis against Atlanta

Take the station at Minneapolis-St Paul airport. Its typical last spring frost is April 23, but one year in ten still has a frost on or after May 7. A gardener who wants a safe tomato date should plan around the later one, not the earlier. In the fall the typical first frost is October 18, and one year in ten has frost by October 1. Between them sits a frost-free season of 176 days in a typical year, and nine years in ten give at least 158 days. That shorter figure is the one to compare against a seed packet's days to maturity.

Atlanta's Hartsfield airport station tells a different story. Its typical last frost is March 15, with a late date of April 4, and the typical season runs 252 days. Atlanta's frost-free stretch is the longer of the two by a wide margin, and its last frost comes well before Minneapolis's, so the same seed packet reads very differently in the two gardens.

Choosing between nearby stations

A frost date belongs to one thermometer, and your garden is not at it. The page lists the distance whenever it finds stations for you, and the data itself shows why that matters. The Denver airport station sits at 5,400 feet, and its typical last frost is May 5, with a late date of May 19. Put that beside Minneapolis or Atlanta above and you can see how far apart two stations in different settings can be.

So do not take the first station that appears. Pick the closest one, then open two or three more near it, especially any that sit at a different elevation from your garden. If their dates disagree, you have found the spread to plan around. Lean toward the colder reading: the later spring date and the earlier fall date cost you little if they prove too cautious.

Putting the dates to work

• Starting seeds indoors: count back from your safe last-frost date by the number of weeks the seed starting schedule gives for each crop.
• Setting out tender plants: NC State notes that warm-season vegetables do not tolerate frost, so they go out after the late date, or after the typical date only if you are ready to cover them.
• Cool-season crops: NC State Extension says cool-season vegetables can tolerate colder temperatures and some frost, so the typical date is a fair guide for them. For their timing in a fall garden, see the fall planting planner.
• Fall gardens: count back from the early fall date by a crop's days to maturity; the days to harvest chart lists them.

The result also shows the hard-freeze dates, the typical last and first nights at or below 28°F. They sit later in the fall and earlier in the spring than the dates for 32°F, so compare the two to see how long your garden has between a first light frost and a harder one.

Cities with a page of their own

The largest cities in the country each have a page built from their own station's record: the dates, the length of the season, planting dates counted from them and a comparison with the nearest cities. Find yours on the city frost dates index, listed by state.

Where these numbers come from

All of the dates come straight from NOAA's normals file for each station, unchanged; this site does not adjust, smooth or average them. The station list holds 6,948 stations with frost dates, 119 where frost is too rare to date, and 180 mountain and Alaska stations where a frost can arrive in any month. The methodology page explains how the file was fetched and checked.

To compare your state with the rest of the country, see our study of frost dates and growing season by state. Garden clubs and nurseries can put this lookup on their own site with the free frost date widget.

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 it gets wrong.