Mechanicsburg, PA 17072 Frost Dates
17072, near Mechanicsburg, PA: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 04/09, about 224 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 11/01, roughly 205 days after the last spring frost.
Zone 7a (0 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 Mechanicsburg, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Mechanicsburg's growing season runs out in roughly 9 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
Why 04/09 isn't a guarantee
04/09 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 03/27 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 04/25 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Mechanicsburg against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 205 frost-free days, Mechanicsburg places 16,208 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within PA, it ranks 129 of 2,088.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 17072: the frost range, on how to read the range around Mechanicsburg's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Mechanicsburg can differ from the 17072 normal.