Shippensburg, PA 17257 Frost Dates
Shippensburg, PA: when does the frost end?
The last spring frost here typically falls around 04/15, about 230 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/27, roughly 194 days after the last spring frost.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Shippensburg in Zone 7a (0 to 5°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
With roughly 9 weeks until Shippensburg's first fall frost, a row cover or cold frame is what stretches the last few weeks of harvest here.
The actual range around Shippensburg's last frost
04/15 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/01 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/04 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Shippensburg against the rest of the dataset
About 194 days separate Shippensburg's last and first frost, putting it 19,476 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within PA, it ranks 382 of 2,088.
Learn more
Before leaning on 17257's figures: zone vs. frost date explains why Zone 7a and Shippensburg's frost date answer different questions, while the frost range explains how to read the range around Shippensburg's dates instead of trusting one.