Medford, MA 01890 Frost Dates
01890, near Medford, MA: the frost window
Around 04/25 is the usual last spring frost, about 240 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/17, roughly 174 days after the last spring frost.
Medford sits in USDA Zone 6b (-5 to 0°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
Medford's growing season runs out in roughly 7 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
Why 04/25 isn't a guarantee
04/25 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/13 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/08 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Medford against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 174 frost-free days, Medford places 27,327 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within MA, it ranks 305 of 712.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 01890: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 6b and Medford's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Medford's dates instead of trusting one.