Richmond, VA 23276 Frost Dates
23276, near Richmond, VA: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 04/03, roughly 218 days out. 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
At roughly 215 frost-free days, Richmond places 13,977 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within VA, it ranks 368 of 1,178.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 23276: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 7b 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.