Valley-Hi, PA 16691 Frost Dates
16691, near Valley-Hi, PA: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 04/23, roughly 238 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/21, roughly 177 days after the last spring frost.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Valley-Hi in Zone 6b (-5 to 0°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
Valley-Hi's growing season runs out in roughly 8 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
04/23 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/08 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/11 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Valley-Hi against the rest of the dataset
Valley-Hi's growing season runs about 177 days, ranking 26,316 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within PA, it ranks 1,019 of 2,088.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 16691: local microclimates, on what one yard in Valley-Hi can differ from the 16691 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 6b and Valley-Hi's frost date answer different questions.