Cowen, WV 26266 Frost Dates
26266, near Cowen, WV: the frost window
Around 05/04 is the usual last spring frost, about 249 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/12, roughly 160 days after the last spring frost.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Cowen in Zone 6b (-5 to 0°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
Cowen's growing season runs out in roughly 6 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 Cowen's last frost
05/04 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/18 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/22 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Cowen against the rest of the dataset
About 160 days separate Cowen's last and first frost, putting it 32,489 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within WV, it ranks 759 of 885.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 26266: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 6b and Cowen's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Cowen's dates instead of trusting one.