Falls Church, VA 22246 Frost Dates
22246, near Falls Church, VA: the frost window
Around 04/09 is the usual last spring frost, about 224 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/31, roughly 202 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 Falls Church, not a forecast for this year.
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.
Why 04/09 isn't a guarantee
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 17,189 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within VA, it ranks 604 of 1,178.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 22246: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 8a and Falls Church's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Falls Church's dates instead of trusting one.