Hartford, CT 06176 Frost Dates
06176, near Hartford, CT: the frost window
Around 04/17 is the usual last spring frost, about 232 days away. 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.
Why 04/17 isn't a guarantee
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 20,675 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within CT, it ranks 187 of 391.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 06176: 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.