Rouses Point, NY 12979 Frost Dates
12979, near Rouses Point, NY: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 04/30, about 245 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/12, roughly 164 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 Rouses Point, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Rouses Point'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 04/30 isn't a guarantee
04/30 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/17 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/14 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Rouses Point against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 164 frost-free days, Rouses Point places 30,990 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within NY, it ranks 919 of 1,951.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 12979: local microclimates, on what one yard in Rouses Point can differ from the 12979 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 5a and Rouses Point's frost date answer different questions.