Waterford, PA 16441 Frost Dates
16441, near Waterford, PA: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 04/26, roughly 241 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 11/04, roughly 192 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 Waterford, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Waterford's growing season runs out in roughly 10 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
04/26 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/10 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/13 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Waterford against the rest of the dataset
Waterford's growing season runs about 192 days, ranking 20,406 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within PA, it ranks 551 of 2,088.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 16441: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 6a and Waterford's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Waterford's dates instead of trusting one.