Hightstown, NJ 08512 Frost Dates
08512, near Hightstown, NJ: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 04/25, roughly 240 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/16, roughly 173 days after the last spring frost.
Hightstown 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
Hightstown's growing season runs out in roughly 7 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
Why 04/25 isn't a guarantee
04/25 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/12 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/12 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Hightstown against the rest of the dataset
Hightstown's growing season runs about 173 days, ranking 27,855 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within NJ, it ranks 838 of 906.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 08512: the frost range, on how to read the range around Hightstown's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Hightstown can differ from the 08512 normal.