Scotia, NY 12301 Frost Dates
12301, near Scotia, NY: the frost window
Around 05/07 is the usual last spring frost, about 252 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/07, roughly 153 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 Scotia, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Scotia'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.
The actual range around Scotia's last frost
05/07 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/22 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/23 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Scotia against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 153 frost-free days, Scotia places 34,521 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within NY, it ranks 1,442 of 1,951.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 12301: the frost range, on how to read the range around Scotia's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Scotia can differ from the 12301 normal.