Salem, VA 24070 Frost Dates
Frost dates for Salem, VA, ZIP 24070
Around 04/03 is the usual last spring frost, about 218 days away. The first fall frost typically arrives around 11/01, about 210 frost-free days later.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Salem in Zone 7a (0 to 5°F average annual minimum); frost dates are NOAA's 1991-2020 station normal, not this year's forecast.
What to do before the first frost
Zone 7a around Salem has about 9 weeks left before the first fall frost — that's the usual window to get a cold frame up if you want to keep harvesting past it.
The actual range around Salem's last frost
04/03 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Plant by 03/19 and you're betting against frost in roughly 9 years out of 10. 04/18 is the safer bet, historically only a 1-in-10 chance of frost that late.
How Salem compares
At roughly 210 frost-free days, Salem places 14,976 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within VA, it ranks 424 of 1,178.
Learn more
zone vs. frost date explains why Zone 7a and Salem's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range explains how to read the range around Salem's dates instead of trusting one.