Amherst Town, MA 01072 Frost Dates
Amherst Town, MA: when does the frost end?
Around 05/02 is the usual last spring frost, about 247 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/09, roughly 160 days after the last spring frost.
Zone 5b (-15 to -10°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 Amherst Town, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
With roughly 6 weeks until Amherst Town's first fall frost, a row cover or cold frame is what stretches the last few weeks of harvest here.
Why 05/02 isn't a guarantee
05/02 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.
Amherst Town against the rest of the dataset
About 160 days separate Amherst Town's last and first frost, putting it 32,224 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within MA, it ranks 520 of 712.
Learn more
Before leaning on 01072's figures: the frost range explains how to read the range around Amherst Town's dates instead of trusting one, while local microclimates explains what one yard in Amherst Town can differ from the 01072 normal.