Paterson, NJ 07503 Frost Dates
07503, near Paterson, 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.
Paterson 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
Paterson'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.
Paterson against the rest of the dataset
About 195 days separate Paterson's last and first frost, putting it 19,141 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within NJ, it ranks 480 of 906.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 07503: local microclimates, on what one yard in Paterson can differ from the 07503 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 7a and Paterson's frost date answer different questions.