Oil City, PA 16346 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.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Oil City in Zone 6a (-10 to -5°F average annual minimum); frost dates are NOAA's 1991-2020 station normal, not this year's 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.
How much risk comes with planting early here
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
At roughly 140 frost-free days, Oil City places 37,040 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within PA, it ranks 1,977 of 2,088.
Learn more
Before leaning on 16346'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 16346 normal.