FrostDateCheck

Laurel Mountain, PA 15638 Frost Dates

15638, near Laurel Mountain, PA: the frost window

Zone 6b

Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 04/29, roughly 244 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/21, roughly 176 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 Laurel Mountain, not a forecast for this year.

Stretching the season past the first frost

Laurel Mountain'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

04/29 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/14 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/17 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.

Laurel Mountain against the rest of the dataset

About 176 days separate Laurel Mountain's last and first frost, putting it 26,666 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within PA, it ranks 1,104 of 2,088.

Learn more

Two guides worth reading on 15638: local microclimates, on what one yard in Laurel Mountain can differ from the 15638 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 6b and Laurel Mountain's frost date answer different questions.