Lebanon, NH 03784 Frost Dates
03784, near Lebanon, NH: the frost window
Around 05/01 is the usual last spring frost, about 246 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/13, roughly 162 days after the last spring frost.
Zone 5a (-20 to -15°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 Lebanon, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Lebanon's growing season runs out in roughly 7 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
Why 05/01 isn't a guarantee
05/01 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/21 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/15 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Lebanon against the rest of the dataset
About 162 days separate Lebanon's last and first frost, putting it 31,672 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within NH, it ranks 46 of 260.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 03784: local microclimates, on what one yard in Lebanon can differ from the 03784 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 5a and Lebanon's frost date answer different questions.