Oil City, PA 16319 Frost Dates
Oil City, PA: when does the frost end?
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 05/15, roughly 260 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/03, roughly 140 days after the last spring frost.
Oil City 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
With roughly 5 weeks until Oil City's first fall frost, a row cover or cold frame is what stretches the last few weeks of harvest here.
Why 05/15 isn't a guarantee
05/15 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/30 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 06/01 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Oil City against the rest of the dataset
Oil City's growing season runs about 140 days, ranking 37,038 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within PA, it ranks 1,975 of 2,088.
Learn more
Before leaning on 16319's figures: the frost range explains how to read the range around Oil City's dates instead of trusting one, while local microclimates explains what one yard in Oil City can differ from the 16319 normal.