Barnstable Town, MA 02541 Frost Dates
02541, near Barnstable Town, MA: the frost window
Around 04/22 is the usual last spring frost, about 237 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/28, roughly 188 days after the last spring frost.
Zone 7a (0 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 Barnstable Town, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Barnstable Town's growing season runs out in roughly 9 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
Why 04/22 isn't a guarantee
04/22 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/09 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.
Barnstable Town against the rest of the dataset
About 188 days separate Barnstable Town's last and first frost, putting it 21,834 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within MA, it ranks 144 of 712.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 02541: local microclimates, on what one yard in Barnstable Town can differ from the 02541 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 7a and Barnstable Town's frost date answer different questions.