Nichols, NY 13840 Frost Dates
13840, near Nichols, NY: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 05/06, about 251 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/10, roughly 157 days after the last spring frost.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Nichols in Zone 6a (-10 to -5°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
Nichols'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.
The actual range around Nichols's last frost
05/06 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/22 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/22 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Nichols against the rest of the dataset
About 157 days separate Nichols's last and first frost, putting it 33,428 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within NY, it ranks 1,258 of 1,951.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 13840: local microclimates, on what one yard in Nichols can differ from the 13840 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 6a and Nichols's frost date answer different questions.