Winchester, VA 22656 Frost Dates
Frost dates for Winchester, VA, ZIP 22656
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 04/25, roughly 240 days out. The first fall frost typically arrives around 10/18, about 174 frost-free days later.
Zone 7a (0 to 5°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 Winchester, not a forecast for this year.
What to do before the first frost
Zone 7a around Winchester has about 7 weeks left before the first fall frost — that's the usual window to get a cold frame up if you want to keep harvesting past it.
How much risk comes with planting early here
04/25 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Plant by 04/11 and you're betting against frost in roughly 9 years out of 10. 05/13 is the safer bet, historically only a 1-in-10 chance of frost that late.
How Winchester compares
About 174 days separate Winchester's last and first frost, putting it 27,349 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within VA, it ranks 1,079 of 1,178.
Learn more
zone vs. frost date explains why Zone 7a and Winchester's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range explains how to read the range around Winchester's dates instead of trusting one.