Dunkirk, NY 14135 Frost Dates
Dunkirk, NY: when does the frost end?
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 05/05, roughly 250 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/20, roughly 167 days after the last spring frost.
Dunkirk sits in USDA Zone 6b (-5 to 0°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
With roughly 8 weeks until Dunkirk's first fall frost, a row cover or cold frame is what stretches the last few weeks of harvest here.
Why 05/05 isn't a guarantee
05/05 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 05/20 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Dunkirk against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 167 frost-free days, Dunkirk places 29,907 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within NY, it ranks 845 of 1,951.
Learn more
Before leaning on 14135's figures: local microclimates explains what one yard in Dunkirk can differ from the 14135 normal, while zone vs. frost date explains why Zone 6b and Dunkirk's frost date answer different questions.