Butler, PA 16016 Frost Dates
16016, near Butler, PA: the frost window
Around 04/16 is the usual last spring frost, about 231 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 11/02, roughly 199 days after the last spring frost.
Zone 6a (-10 to -5°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 Butler, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Butler's growing season runs out in roughly 9 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
Why 04/16 isn't a guarantee
04/16 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 03/31 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/02 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Butler against the rest of the dataset
About 199 days separate Butler's last and first frost, putting it 18,056 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within PA, it ranks 285 of 2,088.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 16016: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 6a and Butler's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Butler's dates instead of trusting one.