Pawtucket, RI 02916 Frost Dates
02916, near Pawtucket, RI: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 04/11, about 226 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/30, roughly 199 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 Pawtucket, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Pawtucket'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.
The actual range around Pawtucket's last frost
04/11 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/01 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 04/23 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Pawtucket against the rest of the dataset
Pawtucket's growing season runs about 199 days, ranking 18,008 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within RI, it ranks 44 of 79.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 02916: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 7a and Pawtucket's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Pawtucket's dates instead of trusting one.