Lancaster, NY 14059 Frost Dates
14059, near Lancaster, NY: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 05/07, roughly 252 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/10, roughly 155 days after the last spring frost.
Lancaster sits in USDA Zone 6a (-10 to -5°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
Lancaster'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 05/07 isn't a guarantee
05/07 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/25 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/23 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Lancaster against the rest of the dataset
Lancaster's growing season runs about 155 days, ranking 33,938 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within NY, it ranks 1,373 of 1,951.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 14059: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 6a and Lancaster's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Lancaster's dates instead of trusting one.