Lake Placid, NY 12879 Frost Dates
12879, near Lake Placid, NY: the frost window
Around 05/21 is the usual last spring frost, about 266 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 09/24, roughly 123 days after the last spring frost.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Lake Placid in Zone 4b (-25 to -20°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
Lake Placid'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.
The actual range around Lake Placid's last frost
05/21 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 05/07 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 06/05 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Lake Placid against the rest of the dataset
Lake Placid's growing season runs about 123 days, ranking 38,891 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within NY, it ranks 1,938 of 1,951.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 12879: local microclimates, on what one yard in Lake Placid can differ from the 12879 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 4b and Lake Placid's frost date answer different questions.