State by State Freeze & Frost Dates

The How Do Gardener ^ | Sept. 21, 2011 | Rick Bickling

[orsonwb]

The most important factor in determining when to plant a certain type of vegetable in your garden is the “Last Freeze Date” in the spring, and the “First Freeze Date” in the fall for your area. These dates for a given area are based on historical weather data from that area over a 30 year period compiled by the National Climatic Data Center. View the state by state charts...

[orsonwb]

This may be helpful for gardeners.

[Ellendra]

Gardening ping!!!

[svcw]

Thanks

[Tea Party Hobbit]

I’ve seen this info elsewhere, but your site has better explanatory notes than the government site I saw years ago.

Here’s a table that gives the locations where each county’s data was collected, and when:
http://cdo.ncdc.noaa.gov/climatenormals/clim20supp1/doc/freeze-list.pdf

[Vigilanteman]

Nice, detailed charts at the links. Hard to believe State College (Penn State) gets a longer growing season than us (Laurel Mountains). They are well north of us and we're not much higher in elevation.

Guess the old timers knew what they were doing when they located the state agricultural college there.

[Red_Devil 232]

Very interesting! I will include a link to this in tomorrows weekly gardening thread!

[OB1kNOb]

Very useful. Thanks for posting. - OB1

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

It’s that 10% chance of a freeze on Aug 25 that gives me hope ;)

[handmade]

I am in zone 5B- in south central Nebraska.My daughter lived in Lewiston Idaho which is way north of me, but she was in a zone 6 and they could grow many things there including alot of fruit. They were in a deep valley -she often had lettuce still doing well into December without protection. Micro-climates make a difference. The regular Zone 6 for instance is south of me.

[Clint N. Suhks]

I don’t get the last column (level 4 probability)...

[Tea Party Hobbit]

Footnote 4 -- hiding at the very end of the table for the entire state -- says:

(4) Probability of Freeze/Frost in the yearly period (percent of days with temperatures at or below the threshold temperature).

So the numbers in the final column are the percentage of days in the year that are below 36, 32, and 28 degrees.

To convert those percentages to days, multiply the percentage by 365.25 days in a year.

So for example, my percentage of days below 36 degrees is 32. So I multiply .32 by 365.25, which gives me 116.88, or 117: I can expect an average of 117 days with a low temperature at or below 36 degrees.

There must have been a better way for them to arrange and label this table!

[orsonwb]

Clint - column 4 is the percent of days, over the course of a calendar year for that city, with temperatures at or below the threshold temperature(column 4 : row 1 = Frost; column 4 : row 2 = Freeze; column 4 row 3 = Hard Freeze)

[Clint N. Suhks]

Thanks! just wondering How long my mid

July seedlings would last. Picked one today.