Jacksonville, VT 05344 Frost Dates
05344, near Jacksonville, VT: the frost window
Around 05/14 is the usual last spring frost, about 259 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/04, roughly 143 days after the last spring frost.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Jacksonville in Zone 5b (-15 to -10°F average annual minimum); frost dates are NOAA's 1991-2020 station normal, not this year's forecast.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Jacksonville'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.
Why 05/14 isn't a guarantee
05/14 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 05/26 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Jacksonville against the rest of the dataset
About 143 days separate Jacksonville's last and first frost, putting it 36,646 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within VT, it ranks 126 of 330.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 05344: local microclimates, on what one yard in Jacksonville can differ from the 05344 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 5b and Jacksonville's frost date answer different questions.