Rockaway, NJ 07842 Frost Dates
Frost dates for Rockaway, NJ, ZIP 07842
Around 04/17 is the usual last spring frost, about 232 days away. The first fall frost typically arrives around 10/23, about 189 frost-free days later.
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 Rockaway, not a forecast for this year.
What to do before the first frost
Zone 6b around Rockaway has about 8 weeks left before the first fall frost — that's the usual window to get a cold frame up if you want to keep harvesting past it.
The actual range around Rockaway's last frost
04/17 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Plant by 04/04 and you're betting against frost in roughly 9 years out of 10. 05/05 is the safer bet, historically only a 1-in-10 chance of frost that late.
How Rockaway compares
About 189 days separate Rockaway's last and first frost, putting it 21,511 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within NJ, it ranks 633 of 906.
Learn more
local microclimates explains what one yard in Rockaway can differ from the 07842 normal, and zone vs. frost date explains why Zone 6b and Rockaway's frost date answer different questions.