Cary, NC 27511 Frost Dates
Frost dates for Cary, NC, ZIP 27511
The last spring frost here typically falls around 03/31, about 215 days from today. The first fall frost typically arrives around 11/10, about 226 frost-free days later.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Cary in Zone 8a (10 to 15°F average annual minimum); frost dates are NOAA's 1991-2020 station normal, not this year's forecast.
What to do before the first frost
Zone 8a around Cary has about 11 weeks left before the first fall frost — that's the usual window to get a cold frame up if you want to keep harvesting past it.
The actual range around Cary's last frost
03/31 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Plant by 03/12 and you're betting against frost in roughly 9 years out of 10. 04/12 is the safer bet, historically only a 1-in-10 chance of frost that late.
How Cary compares
At roughly 226 frost-free days, Cary places 11,121 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within NC, it ranks 355 of 1,078.
Learn more
zone vs. frost date explains why Zone 8a and Cary's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range explains how to read the range around Cary's dates instead of trusting one.