Vergennes, VT 05456 Frost Dates
05456, near Vergennes, VT: the frost window
Around 05/21 is the usual last spring frost, about 266 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 09/25, roughly 124 days after the last spring frost.
Vergennes 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
Vergennes's growing season runs out in roughly 4 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
Why 05/21 isn't a guarantee
05/21 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 05/06 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 06/06 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Vergennes against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 124 frost-free days, Vergennes places 38,838 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within VT, it ranks 303 of 330.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 05456: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 5a and Vergennes's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Vergennes's dates instead of trusting one.