FrostDateCheck

Rockland, ME 04645 Frost Dates

04645, near Rockland, ME: the frost window

Zone 6b

Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 04/27, roughly 242 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/19, roughly 175 days after the last spring frost.

Rockland sits in USDA Zone 6b (-5 to 0°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

Rockland's growing season runs out in roughly 7 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.

Why 04/27 isn't a guarantee

04/27 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/17 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/09 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.

Rockland against the rest of the dataset

About 175 days separate Rockland's last and first frost, putting it 26,854 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within ME, it ranks 64 of 456.

Learn more

Two guides worth reading on 04645: local microclimates, on what one yard in Rockland can differ from the 04645 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 6b and Rockland's frost date answer different questions.