Franklin, NH 03243 Frost Dates
03243, near Franklin, NH: the frost window
Around 05/07 is the usual last spring frost, about 252 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/03, roughly 148 days after the last spring frost.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Franklin in Zone 5b (-15 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
Franklin's growing season runs out in roughly 5 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 Franklin's last frost
05/07 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/27 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/20 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Franklin against the rest of the dataset
About 148 days separate Franklin's last and first frost, putting it 35,695 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within NH, it ranks 143 of 260.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 03243: local microclimates, on what one yard in Franklin can differ from the 03243 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 5b and Franklin's frost date answer different questions.