Downingtown, PA 19381 Frost Dates
19381, near Downingtown, PA: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 04/26, roughly 241 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/18, roughly 174 days after the last spring frost.
Downingtown sits in USDA Zone 7a (0 to 5°F average annual minimum). The dates above are NOAA's 1991-2020 normal at the nearest reporting station, a 30-year average, not a forecast.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Downingtown'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
04/26 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/10 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/11 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Downingtown against the rest of the dataset
Downingtown's growing season runs about 174 days, ranking 27,418 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within PA, it ranks 1,293 of 2,088.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 19381: the frost range, on how to read the range around Downingtown's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Downingtown can differ from the 19381 normal.