Richmond, VA 23294 Frost Dates
23294, near Richmond, VA: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 04/10, roughly 225 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/31, roughly 202 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 9 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
04/10 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 03/27 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 04/29 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Richmond against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 202 frost-free days, Richmond places 17,080 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within VA, it ranks 583 of 1,178.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 23294: 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 23294 normal.