Roanoke, VA 24010 Frost Dates
24010, near Roanoke, VA: the frost window
Around 04/03 is the usual last spring frost, about 218 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 11/01, roughly 210 days after the last spring frost.
Zone 7b (5 to 10°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 Roanoke, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Roanoke'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.
Why 04/03 isn't a guarantee
04/03 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 03/19 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.
Roanoke against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 210 frost-free days, Roanoke places 14,938 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within VA, it ranks 397 of 1,178.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 24010: local microclimates, on what one yard in Roanoke can differ from the 24010 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 7b and Roanoke's frost date answer different questions.