Wilkes-Barre, PA 18702 Frost Dates
18702, near Wilkes-Barre, 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 6a (-10 to -5°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 Wilkes-Barre, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Wilkes-Barre'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.
Wilkes-Barre against the rest of the dataset
Wilkes-Barre's growing season runs about 178 days, ranking 25,575 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within PA, it ranks 878 of 2,088.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 18702: local microclimates, on what one yard in Wilkes-Barre can differ from the 18702 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 6a and Wilkes-Barre's frost date answer different questions.