Keene, NH 03442 Frost Dates
03442, near Keene, NH: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 05/09, about 254 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/05, roughly 148 days after the last spring frost.
Keene sits in USDA Zone 5b (-15 to -10°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
Keene'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.
How much risk comes with planting early here
05/09 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 05/23 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Keene against the rest of the dataset
About 148 days separate Keene's last and first frost, putting it 35,657 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within NH, it ranks 139 of 260.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 03442: the frost range, on how to read the range around Keene's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Keene can differ from the 03442 normal.