York, PA 17403 Frost Dates
17403, near York, PA: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 04/26, roughly 241 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/19, roughly 177 days after the last spring frost.
York sits in USDA Zone 7a (0 to 5°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
York'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.
How much risk comes with planting early here
04/26 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/07 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/13 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
York against the rest of the dataset
York's growing season runs about 177 days, ranking 26,007 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within PA, it ranks 940 of 2,088.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 17403: local microclimates, on what one yard in York can differ from the 17403 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 7a and York's frost date answer different questions.