FrostDateCheck

Alexandria, VA 22311 Frost Dates

22311, near Alexandria, VA: the frost window

Zone 7b

Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 03/24, roughly 208 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 11/18, roughly 241 days after the last spring frost.

Alexandria 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

Alexandria's growing season runs out in roughly 12 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.

Why 03/24 isn't a guarantee

03/24 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 03/07 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 04/06 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.

Alexandria against the rest of the dataset

Alexandria's growing season runs about 241 days, ranking 8,488 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within VA, it ranks 33 of 1,178.

Learn more

Two guides worth reading on 22311: local microclimates, on what one yard in Alexandria can differ from the 22311 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 7b and Alexandria's frost date answer different questions.