Clifton, NJ 07012 Frost Dates
07012, near Clifton, NJ: the frost window
Around 04/15 is the usual last spring frost, about 230 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/28, roughly 195 days after the last spring frost.
Clifton sits in USDA Zone 7a (0 to 5°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
Clifton's growing season runs out in roughly 9 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
04/15 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.
Clifton against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 195 frost-free days, Clifton places 19,148 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within NJ, it ranks 487 of 906.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 07012: the frost range, on how to read the range around Clifton's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Clifton can differ from the 07012 normal.