Rochester, NY 14603 Frost Dates
Frost dates for Rochester, NY, ZIP 14603
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 04/24, roughly 239 days out. The first fall frost typically arrives around 10/25, about 181 frost-free days later.
Rochester 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.
What to do before the first frost
Zone 6b around Rochester has about 8 weeks left before the first fall frost — that's the usual window to get a cold frame up if you want to keep harvesting past it.
The actual range around Rochester's last frost
04/24 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Plant by 04/12 and you're betting against frost in roughly 9 years out of 10. 05/08 is the safer bet, historically only a 1-in-10 chance of frost that late.
How Rochester compares
About 181 days separate Rochester's last and first frost, putting it 24,409 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within NY, it ranks 546 of 1,951.
Learn more
zone vs. frost date explains why Zone 6b and Rochester's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range explains how to read the range around Rochester's dates instead of trusting one.