Chatham, VA 24530 Frost Dates
24530, near Chatham, VA: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 04/22, about 237 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/23, roughly 183 days after the last spring frost.
Chatham sits in USDA Zone 7b (5 to 10°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
Chatham'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.
Why 04/22 isn't a guarantee
04/22 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/07 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/09 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Chatham against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 183 frost-free days, Chatham places 23,910 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within VA, it ranks 963 of 1,178.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 24530: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 7b and Chatham's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Chatham's dates instead of trusting one.