Elco, PA 15434 Frost Dates
15434, near Elco, PA: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 05/02, roughly 247 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/20, roughly 170 days after the last spring frost.
Zone 6b (-5 to 0°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 Elco, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Elco'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
05/02 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/17 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/20 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Elco against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 170 frost-free days, Elco places 29,228 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within PA, it ranks 1,508 of 2,088.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 15434: the frost range, on how to read the range around Elco's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Elco can differ from the 15434 normal.