Derby Center, VT 05853 Frost Dates
05853, near Derby Center, VT: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 05/19, about 264 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 09/29, roughly 129 days after the last spring frost.
Zone 4a (-30 to -25°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 Derby Center, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Derby Center's growing season runs out in roughly 5 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 Derby Center's last frost
05/19 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 05/03 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 06/03 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Derby Center against the rest of the dataset
About 129 days separate Derby Center's last and first frost, putting it 38,477 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within VT, it ranks 291 of 330.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 05853: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 4a and Derby Center's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Derby Center's dates instead of trusting one.