Manchester, NY 14548 Frost Dates
14548, near Manchester, NY: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 04/29, roughly 244 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/22, roughly 175 days after the last spring frost.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Manchester in Zone 6b (-5 to 0°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
Manchester's growing season runs out in roughly 8 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
04/29 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/16 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/12 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Manchester against the rest of the dataset
Manchester's growing season runs about 175 days, ranking 27,021 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within NY, it ranks 610 of 1,951.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 14548: local microclimates, on what one yard in Manchester can differ from the 14548 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 6b and Manchester's frost date answer different questions.