Delaware City, DE 19717 Frost Dates
19717, near Delaware City, DE: the frost window
Around 04/07 is the usual last spring frost, about 222 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 11/01, roughly 209 days after the last spring frost.
Zone 7b (5 to 10°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 Delaware City, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Delaware City'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.
Why 04/07 isn't a guarantee
04/07 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 03/26 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 04/21 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Delaware City against the rest of the dataset
About 209 days separate Delaware City's last and first frost, putting it 15,270 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within DE, it ranks 56 of 96.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 19717: local microclimates, on what one yard in Delaware City can differ from the 19717 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 7b and Delaware City's frost date answer different questions.