FrostDateCheck

West Burke, VT 05906 Frost Dates

05906, near West Burke, VT: the frost window

Zone 4b

The last spring frost here typically falls around 05/18, about 263 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 09/30, roughly 132 days after the last spring frost.

West Burke 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

West Burke'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.

Why 05/18 isn't a guarantee

05/18 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 06/01 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.

West Burke against the rest of the dataset

About 132 days separate West Burke's last and first frost, putting it 38,224 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within VT, it ranks 277 of 330.

Learn more

Two guides worth reading on 05906: local microclimates, on what one yard in West Burke can differ from the 05906 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 4b and West Burke's frost date answer different questions.