St. Michaels, MD 21612 Frost Dates
21612, near St. Michaels, MD: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 04/01, about 216 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 11/07, roughly 220 days after the last spring frost.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts St. Michaels in Zone 8a (10 to 15°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
St. Michaels'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.
Why 04/01 isn't a guarantee
04/01 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 03/18 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 04/15 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
St. Michaels against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 220 frost-free days, St. Michaels places 12,855 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within MD, it ranks 181 of 583.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 21612: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 8a and St. Michaels's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around St. Michaels's dates instead of trusting one.