Auburn, ME 04255 Frost Dates
04255, near Auburn, ME: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 05/06, roughly 251 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/02, roughly 147 days after the last spring frost.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Auburn in Zone 5a (-20 to -15°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
Auburn'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 Auburn's last frost
05/06 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 05/19 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Auburn against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 147 frost-free days, Auburn places 35,856 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within ME, it ranks 324 of 456.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 04255: local microclimates, on what one yard in Auburn can differ from the 04255 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 5a and Auburn's frost date answer different questions.