Amherst, VA 22949 Frost Dates
22949, near Amherst, VA: the frost window
Around 04/15 is the usual last spring frost, about 230 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/25, roughly 193 days after the last spring frost.
Zone 7b (5 to 10°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 Amherst, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Amherst's growing season runs out in roughly 8 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
04/15 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 03/31 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/04 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Amherst against the rest of the dataset
Amherst's growing season runs about 193 days, ranking 19,946 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within VA, it ranks 774 of 1,178.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 22949: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 7b and Amherst's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Amherst's dates instead of trusting one.