Staunton, VA 24437 Frost Dates
24437, near Staunton, VA: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 04/15, roughly 230 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/27, roughly 191 days after the last spring frost.
Staunton 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
Staunton'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.
How much risk comes with planting early here
04/15 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/01 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/06 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Staunton against the rest of the dataset
Staunton's growing season runs about 191 days, ranking 20,709 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within VA, it ranks 818 of 1,178.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 24437: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 7a and Staunton's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Staunton's dates instead of trusting one.