Newport News, VA 23604 Frost Dates
23604, near Newport News, VA: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 04/01, roughly 216 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 11/09, roughly 221 days after the last spring frost.
Zone 8a (10 to 15°F average annual minimum) comes from the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map; the frost dates above are the 1991-2020 normal at the nearest reporting NOAA station for Newport News, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Newport News'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.
How much risk comes with planting early here
04/01 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 03/18 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.
Newport News against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 221 frost-free days, Newport News places 12,429 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within VA, it ranks 258 of 1,178.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 23604: the frost range, on how to read the range around Newport News's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Newport News can differ from the 23604 normal.