La Plata, MD 20617 Frost Dates
20617, near La Plata, MD: the frost window
Around 04/17 is the usual last spring frost, about 232 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/27, roughly 195 days after the last spring frost.
La Plata sits in USDA Zone 7b (5 to 10°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
La Plata'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
04/17 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 03/31 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/02 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
La Plata against the rest of the dataset
About 195 days separate La Plata's last and first frost, putting it 19,227 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within MD, it ranks 501 of 583.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 20617: the frost range, on how to read the range around La Plata's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in La Plata can differ from the 20617 normal.