Richmond, VA 23139 Frost Dates
23139, near Richmond, VA: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 04/17, about 232 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/27, roughly 191 days after the last spring frost.
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 Richmond, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Richmond's growing season runs out in roughly 9 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
04/17 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/01 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/08 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Richmond against the rest of the dataset
About 191 days separate Richmond's last and first frost, putting it 20,614 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within VA, it ranks 811 of 1,178.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 23139: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 7a and Richmond's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Richmond's dates instead of trusting one.