Scranton, PA 18505 Frost Dates
Frost dates for Scranton, PA, ZIP 18505
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 04/23, roughly 238 days out. The first fall frost typically arrives around 10/20, about 178 frost-free days later.
Zone 6b (-5 to 0°F average annual minimum) comes from the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map; the frost dates above are the 1991-2020 normal at the nearest reporting NOAA station for Scranton, not a forecast for this year.
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.
How much risk comes with planting early here
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 25,561 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within PA, it ranks 872 of 2,088.
Learn more
the frost range explains how to read the range around Scranton's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates explains what one yard in Scranton can differ from the 18505 normal.