Waterville, ME 04958 Frost Dates
04958, near Waterville, 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 10/05, roughly 149 days after the last spring frost.
Waterville 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
Waterville'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 04/28 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/20 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Waterville against the rest of the dataset
About 149 days separate Waterville's last and first frost, putting it 35,483 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within ME, it ranks 279 of 456.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 04958: the frost range, on how to read the range around Waterville's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Waterville can differ from the 04958 normal.