Barnstable Town, MA 02552 Frost Dates
02552, near Barnstable Town, MA: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 05/07, roughly 252 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/09, roughly 156 days after the last spring frost.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Barnstable Town in Zone 7b (5 to 10°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
Barnstable Town'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.
How much risk comes with planting early here
05/07 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/22 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/27 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Barnstable Town against the rest of the dataset
About 156 days separate Barnstable Town's last and first frost, putting it 33,506 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within MA, it ranks 606 of 712.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 02552: the frost range, on how to read the range around Barnstable Town's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Barnstable Town can differ from the 02552 normal.