Hartford, CT 06103 Frost Dates
06103, near Hartford, CT: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 04/17, about 232 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/26, roughly 191 days after the last spring frost.
Zone 6b (-5 to 0°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 Hartford, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Hartford's growing season runs out in roughly 8 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
How much risk comes with planting early here
04/17 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/01 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/01 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Hartford against the rest of the dataset
About 191 days separate Hartford's last and first frost, putting it 20,631 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within CT, it ranks 143 of 391.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 06103: the frost range, on how to read the range around Hartford's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Hartford can differ from the 06103 normal.