Washington, DC 20435 Frost Dates
Washington, DC: when does the frost end?
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 03/24, roughly 208 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 11/18, roughly 241 days after the last spring frost.
Washington 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
With roughly 12 weeks until Washington's first fall frost, a row cover or cold frame is what stretches the last few weeks of harvest here.
The actual range around Washington's last frost
03/24 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 03/07 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 04/06 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Washington against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 241 frost-free days, Washington places 8,442 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within DC, it ranks 23 of 246.
Learn more
Before leaning on 20435's figures: local microclimates explains what one yard in Washington can differ from the 20435 normal, while zone vs. frost date explains why Zone 8a and Washington's frost date answer different questions.