Potsdam, NY 13677 Frost Dates
13677, near Potsdam, NY: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 05/09, roughly 254 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 09/30, roughly 142 days after the last spring frost.
Potsdam 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
Potsdam'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
05/09 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/27 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/25 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Potsdam against the rest of the dataset
About 142 days separate Potsdam's last and first frost, putting it 36,719 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within NY, it ranks 1,757 of 1,951.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 13677: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 4b and Potsdam's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Potsdam's dates instead of trusting one.