Palmer Town, MA 01031 Frost Dates
01031, near Palmer Town, MA: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 05/03, about 248 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/14, roughly 164 days after the last spring frost.
Zone 6a (-10 to -5°F average annual minimum) comes from the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map; the frost dates above are the 1991-2020 normal at the nearest reporting NOAA station for Palmer Town, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Palmer Town's growing season runs out in roughly 7 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 04/21 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/16 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Palmer Town against the rest of the dataset
About 164 days separate Palmer Town's last and first frost, putting it 30,872 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within MA, it ranks 432 of 712.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 01031: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 6a and Palmer Town's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Palmer Town's dates instead of trusting one.