Shade Gap, PA 17220 Frost Dates
17220, near Shade Gap, PA: the frost window
Around 04/21 is the usual last spring frost, about 236 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/24, roughly 185 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 Shade Gap, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Shade Gap'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.
Why 04/21 isn't a guarantee
04/21 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/06 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/09 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Shade Gap against the rest of the dataset
Shade Gap's growing season runs about 185 days, ranking 23,363 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within PA, it ranks 751 of 2,088.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 17220: local microclimates, on what one yard in Shade Gap can differ from the 17220 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 7a and Shade Gap's frost date answer different questions.