Altavista, VA 24517 Frost Dates
24517, near Altavista, 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 10/24, roughly 191 days after the last spring frost.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Altavista in Zone 7b (5 to 10°F average annual minimum); frost dates are NOAA's 1991-2020 station normal, not this year's forecast.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Altavista's growing season runs out in roughly 8 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
The actual range around Altavista's last frost
04/15 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 03/30 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/03 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Altavista against the rest of the dataset
Altavista's growing season runs about 191 days, ranking 20,774 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within VA, it ranks 829 of 1,178.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 24517: the frost range, on how to read the range around Altavista's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Altavista can differ from the 24517 normal.