Orleans, VT 05860 Frost Dates
Orleans, VT: when does the frost end?
Around 05/14 is the usual last spring frost, about 259 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 09/30, roughly 138 days after the last spring frost.
Orleans sits in USDA Zone 4b (-25 to -20°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
With roughly 5 weeks until Orleans's first fall frost, a row cover or cold frame is what stretches the last few weeks of harvest here.
The actual range around Orleans's last frost
05/14 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 05/28 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Orleans against the rest of the dataset
Orleans's growing season runs about 138 days, ranking 37,427 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within VT, it ranks 192 of 330.
Learn more
Before leaning on 05860's figures: zone vs. frost date explains why Zone 4b and Orleans's frost date answer different questions, while the frost range explains how to read the range around Orleans's dates instead of trusting one.