Worcester, MA 01653 Frost Dates
01653, near Worcester, MA: the frost window
Around 04/23 is the usual last spring frost, about 238 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/21, roughly 181 days after the last spring frost.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Worcester in Zone 6b (-5 to 0°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
Worcester's growing season runs out in roughly 8 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 Worcester's last frost
04/23 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/11 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/05 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Worcester against the rest of the dataset
About 181 days separate Worcester's last and first frost, putting it 24,407 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within MA, it ranks 232 of 712.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 01653: local microclimates, on what one yard in Worcester can differ from the 01653 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 6b and Worcester's frost date answer different questions.