Dalton, PA 18414 Frost Dates
18414, near Dalton, PA: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 04/23, roughly 238 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/20, roughly 178 days after the last spring frost.
Dalton sits in USDA Zone 6a (-10 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
Dalton'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 04/23 isn't a guarantee
04/23 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/09 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/10 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Dalton against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 178 frost-free days, Dalton places 25,796 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within PA, it ranks 928 of 2,088.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 18414: the frost range, on how to read the range around Dalton's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Dalton can differ from the 18414 normal.