Somerset, PA 15501 Frost Dates
15501, near Somerset, PA: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 05/01, roughly 246 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/13, roughly 164 days after the last spring frost.
Somerset sits in USDA Zone 6a (-10 to -5°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
Somerset's growing season runs out in roughly 7 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
05/01 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 05/19 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Somerset against the rest of the dataset
About 164 days separate Somerset's last and first frost, putting it 30,907 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within PA, it ranks 1,565 of 2,088.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 15501: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 6a and Somerset's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Somerset's dates instead of trusting one.