Elmira, NY 14904 Frost Dates
14904, near Elmira, NY: the frost window
Around 05/06 is the usual last spring frost, about 251 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/11, roughly 158 days after the last spring frost.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Elmira in Zone 6a (-10 to -5°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
Elmira'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.
The actual range around Elmira's last frost
05/06 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/24 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/21 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Elmira against the rest of the dataset
About 158 days separate Elmira's last and first frost, putting it 32,918 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within NY, it ranks 1,148 of 1,951.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 14904: local microclimates, on what one yard in Elmira can differ from the 14904 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 6a and Elmira's frost date answer different questions.