Barnegat Light, NJ 08758 Frost Dates
08758, near Barnegat Light, NJ: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 04/23, about 238 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/20, roughly 179 days after the last spring frost.
Barnegat Light 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
Barnegat Light'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.
How much risk comes with planting early here
04/23 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/08 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.
Barnegat Light against the rest of the dataset
Barnegat Light's growing season runs about 179 days, ranking 25,431 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within NJ, it ranks 786 of 906.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 08758: local microclimates, on what one yard in Barnegat Light can differ from the 08758 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 7a and Barnegat Light's frost date answer different questions.