Gate City, VA 24250 Frost Dates
Gate City, VA: when does the frost end?
The last spring frost here typically falls around 04/20, about 235 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/23, roughly 186 days after the last spring frost.
Gate City sits in USDA Zone 7a (0 to 5°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 8 weeks until Gate City's first fall frost, a row cover or cold frame is what stretches the last few weeks of harvest here.
Why 04/20 isn't a guarantee
04/20 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/04 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/05 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Gate City against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 186 frost-free days, Gate City places 22,859 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within VA, it ranks 930 of 1,178.
Learn more
Before leaning on 24250's figures: zone vs. frost date explains why Zone 7a and Gate City's frost date answer different questions, while the frost range explains how to read the range around Gate City's dates instead of trusting one.