Polk, PA 16342 Frost Dates
Polk, 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.
Polk 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 Polk'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.
Polk against the rest of the dataset
About 140 days separate Polk's last and first frost, putting it 37,116 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within PA, it ranks 2,009 of 2,088.
Learn more
Before leaning on 16342's figures: zone vs. frost date explains why Zone 6a and Polk's frost date answer different questions, while the frost range explains how to read the range around Polk's dates instead of trusting one.