Charlottesville, VA 22902 Frost Dates
22902, near Charlottesville, VA: the frost window
Around 04/02 is the usual last spring frost, about 217 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 11/08, roughly 221 days after the last spring frost.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Charlottesville in Zone 7b (5 to 10°F average annual minimum); frost dates are NOAA's 1991-2020 station normal, not this year's forecast.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Charlottesville's growing season runs out in roughly 10 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
Why 04/02 isn't a guarantee
04/02 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 03/19 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 04/16 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Charlottesville against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 221 frost-free days, Charlottesville places 12,440 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within VA, it ranks 267 of 1,178.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 22902: local microclimates, on what one yard in Charlottesville can differ from the 22902 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 7b and Charlottesville's frost date answer different questions.