FrostDateCheck

Portland, PA 07832 Frost Dates

07832, near Portland, PA: the frost window

Zone 6b

Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 04/18, roughly 233 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/25, roughly 188 days after the last spring frost.

The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Portland in Zone 6b (-5 to 0°F average annual minimum); frost dates are NOAA's 1991-2020 station normal, not this year's forecast.

Stretching the season past the first frost

Portland'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 04/18 isn't a guarantee

04/18 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/05 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/05 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.

Portland against the rest of the dataset

At roughly 188 frost-free days, Portland places 22,161 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within PA, it ranks 596 of 2,088.

Learn more

Two guides worth reading on 07832: local microclimates, on what one yard in Portland can differ from the 07832 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 6b and Portland's frost date answer different questions.