Scranton, PA 18540 Frost Dates
18540, near Scranton, PA: the frost window
Around 04/23 is the usual last spring frost, about 238 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/20, roughly 178 days after the last spring frost.
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.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Scranton'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
04/23 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.
Scranton against the rest of the dataset
Scranton's growing season runs about 178 days, ranking 25,564 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within PA, it ranks 875 of 2,088.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 18540: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 6b and Scranton's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Scranton's dates instead of trusting one.