Franklin, NH 03257 Frost Dates
When can you plant in Franklin, NH?
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 05/02, roughly 247 days out. The first fall frost typically arrives around 10/09, about 158 frost-free days later.
Zone 5b (-15 to -10°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 Franklin, not a forecast for this year.
What to do before the first frost
About 6 weeks of growing season left in Franklin before the first fall frost — a cold frame or row cover can stretch harvest weeks past that date.
The actual range around Franklin's last frost
05/02 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Plant by 04/21 and you're betting against frost in roughly 9 years out of 10. 05/17 is the safer bet, historically only a 1-in-10 chance of frost that late.
How Franklin compares
At roughly 158 frost-free days, Franklin places 32,941 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within NH, it ranks 85 of 260.
Learn more
local microclimates covers what one yard in Franklin can differ from the 03257 normal. zone vs. frost date covers why Zone 5b and Franklin's frost date answer different questions.