Clifton, VA 20124 Frost Dates
20124, near Clifton, VA: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 04/14, roughly 229 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/29, roughly 198 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 Clifton, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Clifton'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
04/14 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 03/30 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 04/28 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Clifton against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 198 frost-free days, Clifton places 18,534 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within VA, it ranks 723 of 1,178.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 20124: local microclimates, on what one yard in Clifton can differ from the 20124 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 7b and Clifton's frost date answer different questions.