Laurel, MD 21046 Frost Dates
21046, near Laurel, MD: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 04/05, about 220 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 11/09, roughly 218 days after the last spring frost.
Laurel 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
Laurel's growing season runs out in roughly 10 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
The actual range around Laurel's last frost
04/05 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 03/21 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 04/19 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Laurel against the rest of the dataset
About 218 days separate Laurel's last and first frost, putting it 13,205 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within MD, it ranks 255 of 583.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 21046: local microclimates, on what one yard in Laurel can differ from the 21046 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 7b and Laurel's frost date answer different questions.