Hartford, CT 06161 Frost Dates
06161, 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.
Hartford sits in USDA Zone 6b (-5 to 0°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
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
Hartford's growing season runs about 191 days, ranking 20,673 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within CT, it ranks 185 of 391.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 06161: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 6b and Hartford's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Hartford's dates instead of trusting one.