Waterford, NY 12188 Frost Dates
Waterford, NY: when does the frost end?
Around 04/19 is the usual last spring frost, about 234 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/26, roughly 190 days after the last spring frost.
Zone 6a (-10 to -5°F average annual minimum) comes from the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map; the frost dates above are the 1991-2020 normal at the nearest reporting NOAA station for Waterford, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
With roughly 8 weeks until Waterford's first fall frost, a row cover or cold frame is what stretches the last few weeks of harvest here.
Why 04/19 isn't a guarantee
04/19 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/06 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/03 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Waterford against the rest of the dataset
About 190 days separate Waterford's last and first frost, putting it 21,194 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within NY, it ranks 374 of 1,951.
Learn more
Before leaning on 12188's figures: the frost range explains how to read the range around Waterford's dates instead of trusting one, while local microclimates explains what one yard in Waterford can differ from the 12188 normal.