Radford, VA 24132 Frost Dates
24132, near Radford, VA: the frost window
Around 04/26 is the usual last spring frost, about 241 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/18, roughly 174 days after the last spring frost.
Zone 7a (0 to 5°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 Radford, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Radford's growing season runs out in roughly 7 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
Why 04/26 isn't a guarantee
04/26 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/10 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/16 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Radford against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 174 frost-free days, Radford places 27,376 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within VA, it ranks 1,082 of 1,178.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 24132: local microclimates, on what one yard in Radford can differ from the 24132 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 7a and Radford's frost date answer different questions.