Suffolk, VA 23438 Frost Dates
23438, near Suffolk, VA: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 04/07, roughly 222 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 11/02, roughly 208 days after the last spring frost.
Suffolk sits in USDA Zone 8a (10 to 15°F average annual minimum). The dates above are NOAA's 1991-2020 normal at the nearest reporting station, a 30-year average, not a forecast.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Suffolk'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
04/07 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 03/22 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 04/25 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Suffolk against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 208 frost-free days, Suffolk places 15,504 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within VA, it ranks 453 of 1,178.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 23438: the frost range, on how to read the range around Suffolk's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Suffolk can differ from the 23438 normal.