Ellenville, NY 12588 Frost Dates
12588, near Ellenville, NY: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 05/06, roughly 251 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/07, roughly 154 days after the last spring frost.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Ellenville in Zone 6b (-5 to 0°F average annual minimum); frost dates are NOAA's 1991-2020 station normal, not this year's forecast.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Ellenville'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 05/06 isn't a guarantee
05/06 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/25 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.
Ellenville against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 154 frost-free days, Ellenville places 34,277 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within NY, it ranks 1,405 of 1,951.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 12588: local microclimates, on what one yard in Ellenville can differ from the 12588 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 6b and Ellenville's frost date answer different questions.