Chicopee, MA 01020 Frost Dates
01020, near Chicopee, MA: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 05/03, roughly 248 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/08, roughly 158 days after the last spring frost.
Chicopee sits in USDA Zone 6a (-10 to -5°F average annual minimum). The dates above are NOAA's 1991-2020 normal at the nearest reporting station, a 30-year average, not a forecast.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Chicopee's growing season runs out in roughly 6 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
Why 05/03 isn't a guarantee
05/03 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/20 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/17 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Chicopee against the rest of the dataset
About 158 days separate Chicopee's last and first frost, putting it 32,878 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within MA, it ranks 559 of 712.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 01020: the frost range, on how to read the range around Chicopee's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Chicopee can differ from the 01020 normal.