Church Creek, MD 21669 Frost Dates
21669, near Church Creek, MD: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 03/22, about 206 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 11/26, roughly 248 days after the last spring frost.
Zone 8a (10 to 15°F average annual minimum) comes from the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map; the frost dates above are the 1991-2020 normal at the nearest reporting NOAA station for Church Creek, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Church Creek's growing season runs out in roughly 13 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
Why 03/22 isn't a guarantee
03/22 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 03/06 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 04/05 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Church Creek against the rest of the dataset
Church Creek's growing season runs about 248 days, ranking 7,744 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within MD, it ranks 15 of 583.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 21669: local microclimates, on what one yard in Church Creek can differ from the 21669 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 8a and Church Creek's frost date answer different questions.