FrostDateCheck

Richmond, VA 23250 Frost Dates

23250, near Richmond, VA: the frost window

Zone 7b

The last spring frost here typically falls around 04/03, about 218 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 11/04, roughly 215 days after the last spring frost.

The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Richmond 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

Richmond'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.

The actual range around Richmond's last frost

04/03 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 04/18 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.

Richmond against the rest of the dataset

About 215 days separate Richmond's last and first frost, putting it 13,970 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within VA, it ranks 361 of 1,178.

Learn more

Two guides worth reading on 23250: the frost range, on how to read the range around Richmond's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Richmond can differ from the 23250 normal.