Gaithersburg, MD 20885 Frost Dates
Gaithersburg, MD: when does the frost end?
Around 04/14 is the usual last spring frost, about 229 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/29, roughly 196 days after the last spring frost.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Gaithersburg in Zone 7b (5 to 10°F average annual minimum); frost dates are NOAA's 1991-2020 station normal, not this year's forecast.
Stretching the season past the first frost
With roughly 9 weeks until Gaithersburg'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
04/14 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.
Gaithersburg against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 196 frost-free days, Gaithersburg places 18,909 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within MD, it ranks 482 of 583.
Learn more
Before leaning on 20885's figures: local microclimates explains what one yard in Gaithersburg can differ from the 20885 normal, while zone vs. frost date explains why Zone 7b and Gaithersburg's frost date answer different questions.