FrostDateCheck

Worcester, MA 01655 Frost Dates

Worcester, MA: when does the frost end?

Zone 6a

The last spring frost here typically falls around 04/23, about 238 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/21, roughly 181 days after the last spring frost.

Zone 6a (-10 to -5°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 Worcester, not a forecast for this year.

Stretching the season past the first frost

With roughly 8 weeks until Worcester's first fall frost, a row cover or cold frame is what stretches the last few weeks of harvest here.

How much risk comes with planting early here

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

At roughly 181 frost-free days, Worcester places 24,408 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within MA, it ranks 233 of 712.

Learn more

Before leaning on 01655's figures: local microclimates explains what one yard in Worcester can differ from the 01655 normal, while zone vs. frost date explains why Zone 6a and Worcester's frost date answer different questions.