Cressona, PA 17972 Frost Dates
17972, near Cressona, PA: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 04/30, roughly 245 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/22, roughly 175 days after the last spring frost.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Cressona 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
Cressona'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 04/30 isn't a guarantee
04/30 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/15 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/18 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Cressona against the rest of the dataset
About 175 days separate Cressona's last and first frost, putting it 27,025 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within PA, it ranks 1,192 of 2,088.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 17972: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 7a and Cressona's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Cressona's dates instead of trusting one.