Falls Church, VA 22040 Frost Dates
22040, near Falls Church, VA: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 04/09, roughly 224 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/31, roughly 202 days after the last spring frost.
Falls Church 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
Falls Church'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
04/09 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 03/27 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 04/26 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Falls Church against the rest of the dataset
Falls Church's growing season runs about 202 days, ranking 17,169 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within VA, it ranks 584 of 1,178.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 22040: local microclimates, on what one yard in Falls Church can differ from the 22040 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 7b and Falls Church's frost date answer different questions.