Scranton, PA 18501 Frost Dates
Frost dates for Scranton, PA, ZIP 18501
Around 04/23 is the usual last spring frost, about 238 days away. The first fall frost typically arrives around 10/20, about 178 frost-free days later.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Scranton in Zone 6b (-5 to 0°F average annual minimum); frost dates are NOAA's 1991-2020 station normal, not this year's forecast.
What to do before the first frost
Zone 6b around Scranton has about 8 weeks left before the first fall frost — that's the usual window to get a cold frame up if you want to keep harvesting past it.
The actual range around Scranton's last frost
04/23 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Plant by 04/09 and you're betting against frost in roughly 9 years out of 10. 05/10 is the safer bet, historically only a 1-in-10 chance of frost that late.
How Scranton compares
At roughly 178 frost-free days, Scranton places 25,558 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within PA, it ranks 869 of 2,088.
Learn more
zone vs. frost date explains why Zone 6b and Scranton's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range explains how to read the range around Scranton's dates instead of trusting one.