Stamford, NY 12434 Frost Dates
12434, near Stamford, NY: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 05/18, roughly 263 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/02, roughly 137 days after the last spring frost.
Stamford 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
Stamford's growing season runs out in roughly 5 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
Why 05/18 isn't a guarantee
05/18 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 05/01 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 06/01 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Stamford against the rest of the dataset
Stamford's growing season runs about 137 days, ranking 37,532 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within NY, it ranks 1,812 of 1,951.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 12434: local microclimates, on what one yard in Stamford can differ from the 12434 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 5b and Stamford's frost date answer different questions.