Auburn, ME 04260 Frost Dates
04260, near Auburn, ME: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 05/03, about 248 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/07, roughly 157 days after the last spring frost.
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 Auburn, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Auburn's growing season runs out in roughly 6 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
05/03 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/23 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/16 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Auburn against the rest of the dataset
About 157 days separate Auburn's last and first frost, putting it 33,226 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within ME, it ranks 186 of 456.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 04260: local microclimates, on what one yard in Auburn can differ from the 04260 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 5b and Auburn's frost date answer different questions.