Norfolk, VA 23503 Frost Dates
23503, near Norfolk, VA: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 03/16, roughly 200 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 11/26, roughly 255 days after the last spring frost.
Norfolk sits in USDA Zone 8b (15 to 20°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
Norfolk's growing season runs out in roughly 13 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
03/16 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 02/26 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 04/01 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Norfolk against the rest of the dataset
Norfolk's growing season runs about 255 days, ranking 6,857 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within VA, it ranks 1 of 1,178.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 23503: local microclimates, on what one yard in Norfolk can differ from the 23503 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 8b and Norfolk's frost date answer different questions.