Old Town, ME 04469 Frost Dates
04469, near Old Town, ME: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 05/13, roughly 258 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 09/28, roughly 137 days after the last spring frost.
Old Town sits in USDA Zone 5a (-20 to -15°F average annual minimum). The dates above are NOAA's 1991-2020 normal at the nearest reporting station, a 30-year average, not a forecast.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Old Town's growing season runs out in roughly 4 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
05/13 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/30 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/28 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Old Town against the rest of the dataset
Old Town's growing season runs about 137 days, ranking 37,504 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within ME, it ranks 385 of 456.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 04469: local microclimates, on what one yard in Old Town can differ from the 04469 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 5a and Old Town's frost date answer different questions.