Montpelier, VT 05609 Frost Dates
Montpelier, VT: when does the frost end?
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 05/05, roughly 250 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/09, roughly 157 days after the last spring frost.
Zone 4b (-25 to -20°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 Montpelier, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
With roughly 6 weeks until Montpelier's first fall frost, a row cover or cold frame is what stretches the last few weeks of harvest here.
How much risk comes with planting early here
05/05 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/23 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/21 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Montpelier against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 157 frost-free days, Montpelier places 33,290 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within VT, it ranks 46 of 330.
Learn more
Before leaning on 05609's figures: the frost range explains how to read the range around Montpelier's dates instead of trusting one, while local microclimates explains what one yard in Montpelier can differ from the 05609 normal.