Meriden, CT 06479 Frost Dates
06479, near Meriden, CT: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 04/26, roughly 241 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/16, roughly 175 days after the last spring frost.
Meriden 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
Meriden's growing season runs out in roughly 7 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
04/26 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/11 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/09 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Meriden against the rest of the dataset
Meriden's growing season runs about 175 days, ranking 26,719 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within CT, it ranks 299 of 391.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 06479: local microclimates, on what one yard in Meriden can differ from the 06479 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 6b and Meriden's frost date answer different questions.