Portsmouth, VA 23523 Frost Dates
Portsmouth, VA: when does the frost end?
The last spring frost here typically falls around 03/23, about 207 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 11/16, roughly 239 days after the last spring frost.
Portsmouth 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
With roughly 11 weeks until Portsmouth's first fall frost, a row cover or cold frame is what stretches the last few weeks of harvest here.
Why 03/23 isn't a guarantee
03/23 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 03/07 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 04/06 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Portsmouth against the rest of the dataset
About 239 days separate Portsmouth's last and first frost, putting it 8,761 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within VA, it ranks 65 of 1,178.
Learn more
Before leaning on 23523's figures: local microclimates explains what one yard in Portsmouth can differ from the 23523 normal, while zone vs. frost date explains why Zone 8b and Portsmouth's frost date answer different questions.