Dover, NJ 07845 Frost Dates
When can you plant in Dover, NJ?
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 04/17, roughly 232 days out. The first fall frost typically arrives around 10/23, about 189 frost-free days later.
Dover 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.
What to do before the first frost
About 8 weeks of growing season left in Dover before the first fall frost — a cold frame or row cover can stretch harvest weeks past that date.
The actual range around Dover'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 Dover compares
At roughly 189 frost-free days, Dover places 21,433 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within NJ, it ranks 602 of 906.
Learn more
local microclimates covers what one yard in Dover can differ from the 07845 normal. zone vs. frost date covers why Zone 6b and Dover's frost date answer different questions.