Essex Junction, VT 05449 Frost Dates
Essex Junction, VT: when does the frost end?
Around 04/29 is the usual last spring frost, about 244 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/15, roughly 169 days after the last spring frost.
Zone 5a (-20 to -15°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 Essex Junction, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
With roughly 7 weeks until Essex Junction's first fall frost, a row cover or cold frame is what stretches the last few weeks of harvest here.
Why 04/29 isn't a guarantee
04/29 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 05/11 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Essex Junction against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 169 frost-free days, Essex Junction places 29,381 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within VT, it ranks 15 of 330.
Learn more
Before leaning on 05449's figures: local microclimates explains what one yard in Essex Junction can differ from the 05449 normal, while zone vs. frost date explains why Zone 5a and Essex Junction's frost date answer different questions.