Fenwick Island, DE 19944 Frost Dates
19944, near Fenwick Island, DE: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 04/07, about 222 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 11/02, roughly 209 days after the last spring frost.
Fenwick Island sits in USDA Zone 8a (10 to 15°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
Fenwick Island'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.
How much risk comes with planting early here
04/07 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 03/24 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 04/23 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Fenwick Island against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 209 frost-free days, Fenwick Island places 15,393 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within DE, it ranks 83 of 96.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 19944: the frost range, on how to read the range around Fenwick Island's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Fenwick Island can differ from the 19944 normal.