Ocean City, NJ 08223 Frost Dates
08223, near Ocean City, NJ: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 03/26, roughly 210 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 11/22, roughly 243 days after the last spring frost.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Ocean City in Zone 7b (5 to 10°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
Ocean City's growing season runs out in roughly 12 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
The actual range around Ocean City's last frost
03/26 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 03/09 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 04/07 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Ocean City against the rest of the dataset
Ocean City's growing season runs about 243 days, ranking 8,282 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within NJ, it ranks 12 of 906.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 08223: local microclimates, on what one yard in Ocean City can differ from the 08223 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 7b and Ocean City's frost date answer different questions.