Lowell, MA 01863 Frost Dates
01863, near Lowell, MA: the frost window
Around 04/30 is the usual last spring frost, about 245 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/10, roughly 164 days after the last spring frost.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Lowell 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
Lowell's growing season runs out in roughly 6 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 Lowell's last frost
04/30 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/19 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/10 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Lowell against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 164 frost-free days, Lowell places 30,809 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within MA, it ranks 414 of 712.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 01863: the frost range, on how to read the range around Lowell's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Lowell can differ from the 01863 normal.