Stillwater, NY 12170 Frost Dates
12170, near Stillwater, NY: the frost window
Around 05/02 is the usual last spring frost, about 247 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/07, roughly 158 days after the last spring frost.
Stillwater sits in USDA Zone 5b (-15 to -10°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
Stillwater's growing season runs out in roughly 6 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
Why 05/02 isn't a guarantee
05/02 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/21 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/17 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Stillwater against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 158 frost-free days, Stillwater places 33,012 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within NY, it ranks 1,178 of 1,951.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 12170: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 5b and Stillwater's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Stillwater's dates instead of trusting one.