Towanda, PA 18854 Frost Dates
18854, near Towanda, PA: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 05/02, about 247 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/15, roughly 165 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 Towanda, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Towanda's growing season runs out in roughly 7 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
05/02 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/20 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/16 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Towanda against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 165 frost-free days, Towanda places 30,589 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within PA, it ranks 1,541 of 2,088.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 18854: local microclimates, on what one yard in Towanda can differ from the 18854 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 6a and Towanda's frost date answer different questions.