New Bedford, MA 02543 Frost Dates
New Bedford, MA: when does the frost end?
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 04/11, roughly 226 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 11/11, roughly 213 days after the last spring frost.
New Bedford sits in USDA Zone 7b (5 to 10°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
With roughly 11 weeks until New Bedford's first fall frost, a row cover or cold frame is what stretches the last few weeks of harvest here.
Why 04/11 isn't a guarantee
04/11 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 03/31 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 04/24 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
New Bedford against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 213 frost-free days, New Bedford places 14,430 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within MA, it ranks 45 of 712.
Learn more
Before leaning on 02543's figures: zone vs. frost date explains why Zone 7b and New Bedford's frost date answer different questions, while the frost range explains how to read the range around New Bedford's dates instead of trusting one.