New Bedford, MA 02743 Frost Dates
02743, near New Bedford, MA: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 04/29, roughly 244 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/15, roughly 167 days after the last spring frost.
New Bedford sits in USDA Zone 7a (0 to 5°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
New Bedford'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 04/29 isn't a guarantee
04/29 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/17 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/15 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
New Bedford against the rest of the dataset
About 167 days separate New Bedford's last and first frost, putting it 29,829 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within MA, it ranks 385 of 712.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 02743: local microclimates, on what one yard in New Bedford can differ from the 02743 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 7a and New Bedford's frost date answer different questions.