Lykens, PA 17097 Frost Dates
17097, near Lykens, PA: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 04/27, about 242 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/16, roughly 172 days after the last spring frost.
Lykens sits in USDA Zone 6b (-5 to 0°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
Lykens's growing season runs out in roughly 7 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
Why 04/27 isn't a guarantee
04/27 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/13 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/12 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Lykens against the rest of the dataset
About 172 days separate Lykens's last and first frost, putting it 28,349 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within PA, it ranks 1,367 of 2,088.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 17097: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 6b and Lykens's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Lykens's dates instead of trusting one.