Shepherdstown, WV 25443 Frost Dates
25443, near Shepherdstown, WV: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 04/26, roughly 241 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/18, roughly 175 days after the last spring frost.
Shepherdstown 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
Shepherdstown's growing season runs out in roughly 7 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
Why 04/26 isn't a guarantee
04/26 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/11 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/15 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Shepherdstown against the rest of the dataset
Shepherdstown's growing season runs about 175 days, ranking 27,029 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within WV, it ranks 611 of 885.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 25443: local microclimates, on what one yard in Shepherdstown can differ from the 25443 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 7a and Shepherdstown's frost date answer different questions.