Ithaca, NY 14867 Frost Dates
14867, near Ithaca, NY: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 05/10, about 255 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/08, roughly 150 days after the last spring frost.
Zone 6a (-10 to -5°F average annual minimum) comes from the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map; the frost dates above are the 1991-2020 normal at the nearest reporting NOAA station for Ithaca, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Ithaca'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 05/10 isn't a guarantee
05/10 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/26 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/26 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Ithaca against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 150 frost-free days, Ithaca places 35,245 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within NY, it ranks 1,567 of 1,951.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 14867: local microclimates, on what one yard in Ithaca can differ from the 14867 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 6a and Ithaca's frost date answer different questions.