Rutland, VT 05736 Frost Dates
05736, near Rutland, VT: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 05/15, about 260 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 09/27, roughly 132 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 Rutland, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Rutland'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.
The actual range around Rutland's last frost
05/15 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 05/01 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/31 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Rutland against the rest of the dataset
Rutland's growing season runs about 132 days, ranking 38,165 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within VT, it ranks 262 of 330.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 05736: local microclimates, on what one yard in Rutland can differ from the 05736 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 5a and Rutland's frost date answer different questions.