Gauley Bridge, WV 26656 Frost Dates
26656, near Gauley Bridge, WV: 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 10/22, roughly 181 days after the last spring frost.
Gauley Bridge 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
Gauley Bridge'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 04/08 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.
Gauley Bridge against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 181 frost-free days, Gauley Bridge places 24,685 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within WV, it ranks 449 of 885.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 26656: local microclimates, on what one yard in Gauley Bridge can differ from the 26656 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 7a and Gauley Bridge's frost date answer different questions.