Lake George, NY 12862 Frost Dates
12862, near Lake George, NY: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 05/23, roughly 268 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 09/27, roughly 125 days after the last spring frost.
Lake George sits in USDA Zone 4b (-25 to -20°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
Lake George's growing season runs out in roughly 4 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
Why 05/23 isn't a guarantee
05/23 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 05/06 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 06/04 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Lake George against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 125 frost-free days, Lake George places 38,771 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within NY, it ranks 1,924 of 1,951.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 12862: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 4b and Lake George's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Lake George's dates instead of trusting one.