Newport, RI 02836 Frost Dates
02836, near Newport, RI: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 05/01, roughly 246 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/12, roughly 163 days after the last spring frost.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Newport in Zone 7a (0 to 5°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
Newport'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.
The actual range around Newport's last frost
05/01 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/19 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/18 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Newport against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 163 frost-free days, Newport places 31,321 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within RI, it ranks 58 of 79.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 02836: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 7a and Newport's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Newport's dates instead of trusting one.