Lewes, DE 19958 Frost Dates
19958, near Lewes, DE: the frost window
Around 03/29 is the usual last spring frost, about 213 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 11/14, roughly 231 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 Lewes, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Lewes's growing season runs out in roughly 11 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
03/29 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 03/13 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 04/09 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Lewes against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 231 frost-free days, Lewes places 10,190 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within DE, it ranks 1 of 96.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 19958: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 7b and Lewes's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Lewes's dates instead of trusting one.