Essex Junction, VT 05465 Frost Dates
05465, near Essex Junction, VT: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 05/02, about 247 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/11, roughly 160 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
Essex Junction's growing season runs out in roughly 6 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
05/02 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/21 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/17 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Essex Junction against the rest of the dataset
About 160 days separate Essex Junction's last and first frost, putting it 32,269 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within VT, it ranks 41 of 330.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 05465: the frost range, on how to read the range around Essex Junction's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Essex Junction can differ from the 05465 normal.