Palmer Town, MA 01080 Frost Dates
01080, near Palmer Town, 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 10/14, roughly 164 days after the last spring frost.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Palmer Town in Zone 6a (-10 to -5°F average annual minimum); frost dates are NOAA's 1991-2020 station normal, not this year's forecast.
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.
How much risk comes with planting early here
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
At roughly 164 frost-free days, Palmer Town places 30,875 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within MA, it ranks 435 of 712.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 01080: 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.