Charleston, WV 25312 Frost Dates
25312, near Charleston, WV: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 04/16, roughly 231 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/26, roughly 192 days after the last spring frost.
Charleston 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
Charleston'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 04/16 isn't a guarantee
04/16 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 05/05 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Charleston against the rest of the dataset
About 192 days separate Charleston's last and first frost, putting it 20,154 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within WV, it ranks 240 of 885.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 25312: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 7a and Charleston's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Charleston's dates instead of trusting one.