Margaretville, NY 12459 Frost Dates
12459, near Margaretville, NY: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 05/19, about 264 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/01, roughly 132 days after the last spring frost.
Margaretville 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
Margaretville'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 05/19 isn't a guarantee
05/19 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 06/03 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Margaretville against the rest of the dataset
About 132 days separate Margaretville's last and first frost, putting it 38,214 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within NY, it ranks 1,892 of 1,951.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 12459: the frost range, on how to read the range around Margaretville's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Margaretville can differ from the 12459 normal.