Williamsburg, VA 23131 Frost Dates
23131, near Williamsburg, VA: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 04/01, about 216 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 11/10, roughly 223 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 Williamsburg, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Williamsburg's growing season runs out in roughly 11 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
04/01 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 03/20 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 04/15 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Williamsburg against the rest of the dataset
Williamsburg's growing season runs about 223 days, ranking 12,032 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within VA, it ranks 204 of 1,178.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 23131: local microclimates, on what one yard in Williamsburg can differ from the 23131 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 8a and Williamsburg's frost date answer different questions.