Plattsburgh, NY 12911 Frost Dates
12911, near Plattsburgh, NY: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 05/04, about 249 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/04, roughly 152 days after the last spring frost.
Zone 5a (-20 to -15°F average annual minimum) comes from the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map; the frost dates above are the 1991-2020 normal at the nearest reporting NOAA station for Plattsburgh, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Plattsburgh'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 05/04 isn't a guarantee
05/04 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/24 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/17 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Plattsburgh against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 152 frost-free days, Plattsburgh places 34,704 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within NY, it ranks 1,458 of 1,951.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 12911: local microclimates, on what one yard in Plattsburgh can differ from the 12911 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 5a and Plattsburgh's frost date answer different questions.