Rochester, NH 03868 Frost Dates
Frost dates for Rochester, NH, ZIP 03868
Around 04/30 is the usual last spring frost, about 245 days away. The first fall frost typically arrives around 10/09, about 161 frost-free days later.
Zone 6a (-10 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 Rochester, not a forecast for this year.
What to do before the first frost
Zone 6a around Rochester has about 6 weeks left before the first fall frost — that's the usual window to get a cold frame up if you want to keep harvesting past it.
The actual range around Rochester's last frost
04/30 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Plant by 04/18 and you're betting against frost in roughly 9 years out of 10. 05/13 is the safer bet, historically only a 1-in-10 chance of frost that late.
How Rochester compares
At roughly 161 frost-free days, Rochester places 31,962 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within NH, it ranks 64 of 260.
Learn more
the frost range explains how to read the range around Rochester's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates explains what one yard in Rochester can differ from the 03868 normal.