FrostDateCheck

Pittsfield, MA 01224 Frost Dates

01224, near Pittsfield, MA: the frost window

Zone 5b

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.

The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Pittsfield in Zone 5b (-15 to -10°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

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.

The actual range around Pittsfield's last frost

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

At roughly 152 frost-free days, Pittsfield places 34,685 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within MA, it ranks 643 of 712.

Learn more

Two guides worth reading on 01224: local microclimates, on what one yard in Pittsfield can differ from the 01224 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 5b and Pittsfield's frost date answer different questions.