Bangor, ME 04435 Frost Dates
04435, near Bangor, ME: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 05/08, roughly 253 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/03, roughly 148 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 Bangor, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Bangor'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
05/08 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.
Bangor against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 148 frost-free days, Bangor places 35,630 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within ME, it ranks 287 of 456.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 04435: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 5a and Bangor's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Bangor's dates instead of trusting one.