Mount Carmel, PA 17840 Frost Dates
17840, near Mount Carmel, PA: the frost window
Around 04/27 is the usual last spring frost, about 242 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/20, roughly 172 days after the last spring frost.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Mount Carmel in Zone 6b (-5 to 0°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
Mount Carmel'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.
How much risk comes with planting early here
04/27 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/12 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/15 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Mount Carmel against the rest of the dataset
Mount Carmel's growing season runs about 172 days, ranking 28,268 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within PA, it ranks 1,349 of 2,088.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 17840: local microclimates, on what one yard in Mount Carmel can differ from the 17840 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 6b and Mount Carmel's frost date answer different questions.