Philadelphia, PA 19162 Frost Dates
19162, near Philadelphia, PA: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 04/15, roughly 230 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/31, roughly 199 days after the last spring frost.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Philadelphia in Zone 7b (5 to 10°F average annual minimum); frost dates are NOAA's 1991-2020 station normal, not this year's forecast.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Philadelphia's growing season runs out in roughly 9 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
The actual range around Philadelphia's last frost
04/15 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/01 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/01 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Philadelphia against the rest of the dataset
Philadelphia's growing season runs about 199 days, ranking 17,946 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within PA, it ranks 259 of 2,088.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 19162: the frost range, on how to read the range around Philadelphia's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Philadelphia can differ from the 19162 normal.