Vergennes, VT 12993 Frost Dates
12993, near Vergennes, VT: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 05/05, roughly 250 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/03, roughly 151 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 Vergennes, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Vergennes'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.
How much risk comes with planting early here
05/05 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/23 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/20 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Vergennes against the rest of the dataset
Vergennes's growing season runs about 151 days, ranking 35,041 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within VT, it ranks 71 of 330.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 12993: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 5a and Vergennes's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Vergennes's dates instead of trusting one.