Wake Forest, NC 27588 Frost Dates
27588, near Wake Forest, NC: the frost window
Around 04/04 is the usual last spring frost, about 219 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 11/04, roughly 213 days after the last spring frost.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Wake Forest in Zone 8a (10 to 15°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
Wake Forest's growing season runs out in roughly 10 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
How much risk comes with planting early here
04/04 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 03/20 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 04/19 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Wake Forest against the rest of the dataset
About 213 days separate Wake Forest's last and first frost, putting it 14,434 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within NC, it ranks 732 of 1,078.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 27588: the frost range, on how to read the range around Wake Forest's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Wake Forest can differ from the 27588 normal.