The Plains, VA 20144 Frost Dates
The Plains, VA: when does the frost end?
Around 04/17 is the usual last spring frost, about 232 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 11/01, roughly 198 days after the last spring frost.
The Plains 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
With roughly 9 weeks until The Plains's first fall frost, a row cover or cold frame is what stretches the last few weeks of harvest here.
How much risk comes with planting early here
04/17 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/03 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/06 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
The Plains against the rest of the dataset
About 198 days separate The Plains's last and first frost, putting it 18,532 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within VA, it ranks 721 of 1,178.
Learn more
Before leaning on 20144's figures: local microclimates explains what one yard in The Plains can differ from the 20144 normal, while zone vs. frost date explains why Zone 7a and The Plains's frost date answer different questions.