Pittsfield, MA 01202 Frost Dates
01202, near Pittsfield, MA: the frost window
Around 05/05 is the usual last spring frost, about 250 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/05, roughly 152 days after the last spring frost.
Pittsfield sits in USDA Zone 5b (-15 to -10°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
Pittsfield's growing season runs out in roughly 5 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
05/05 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/23 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/21 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Pittsfield against the rest of the dataset
Pittsfield's growing season runs about 152 days, ranking 34,683 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within MA, it ranks 641 of 712.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 01202: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 5b and Pittsfield's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Pittsfield's dates instead of trusting one.