Ellsworth, ME 04643 Frost Dates
04643, near Ellsworth, ME: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 05/03, roughly 248 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/09, roughly 158 days after the last spring frost.
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 Ellsworth, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Ellsworth'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 04/22 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.
Ellsworth against the rest of the dataset
About 158 days separate Ellsworth's last and first frost, putting it 32,945 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within ME, it ranks 175 of 456.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 04643: the frost range, on how to read the range around Ellsworth's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Ellsworth can differ from the 04643 normal.