Spencer, NY 14889 Frost Dates
14889, near Spencer, NY: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 05/12, roughly 257 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/03, roughly 143 days after the last spring frost.
Spencer sits in USDA Zone 5b (-15 to -10°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
Spencer's growing season runs out in roughly 5 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
05/12 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/28 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/27 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Spencer against the rest of the dataset
About 143 days separate Spencer's last and first frost, putting it 36,580 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within NY, it ranks 1,749 of 1,951.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 14889: local microclimates, on what one yard in Spencer can differ from the 14889 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 5b and Spencer's frost date answer different questions.