Close-up photo of white frost crystals on lawn grass blades at sunrise
Pillar 05

Climate & Zones

Frost dates, freeze odds and degree days from NOAA 1991–2020 normals, plus your USDA hardiness zone, for your ZIP code. The data behind every other page.

  • 5 guides
  • 2 tools
  • 2 topics
  • Reviewed Oct 3, 2026
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Climate & Zones, one topic at a time

Close-up photo of white frost crystals on lawn grass blades at sunrise Frost & freeze What frost dates and their odds mean, frost vs. freeze, and how to protect plants on a cold… 3 guides Three cedar raised beds with lettuce, kale and staked tomato seedlings along a gravel path Hardiness zones Look up your USDA hardiness zone, see what changed on the 2023 map, and learn why your frost… 2 guides
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Climate & Zones tools

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The climate & zones year

What to do, month by month

Typical timing for most of the US, starting this month. Set your ZIP and the guides shift every date to your frost dates.

  1. OctNow First frost arrives in much of the North See your date and its odds.
  2. Nov See how cold your winters get The coldest month averages below 17°F in about 1 in 4 ZIP codes.
  3. Jan Pick plants by zone, plant by frost date Kansas City and Bend, Oregon, are both zone 6b, but their median last frosts are two months apart.
  4. Feb Look up your last frost odds The safer 10% date falls a median 16 days after the average.
  5. Sep Know your first frost date See your date and its odds.
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This month for your climate & zones

All climate & zones guides

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About this section

How we cover climate & zones

This section holds the climate data the rest of the site runs on. Today that means frost dates for 41,488 US ZIP codes: the last spring and first fall 32°F nights at 10%, 30%, 50% and 90% odds, hard-freeze (28°F) dates, the length of the frost-free season, and annual heating and cooling degree days.

Every figure comes from NOAA NCEI U.S. Climate Normals for 1991–2020, taken from the weather station nearest your ZIP code’s center. Each result names that station and shows its distance and elevation. We publish no frost date when the nearest station is more than 50 miles away, or when frost happens in fewer than half of years. Planting zones, design temperatures and pool seasons are added only once each has a documented, sourced method. The methodology page lists every source, threshold and limitation.

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