Durham, NC 27706 Frost Dates
Frost dates for Durham, NC, ZIP 27706
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 04/02, roughly 217 days out. The first fall frost typically arrives around 11/04, about 217 frost-free days later.
Durham sits in USDA Zone 8a (10 to 15°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.
What to do before the first frost
Zone 8a around Durham has about 10 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 Durham's last frost
04/02 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Plant by 03/15 and you're betting against frost in roughly 9 years out of 10. 04/18 is the safer bet, historically only a 1-in-10 chance of frost that late.
How Durham compares
About 217 days separate Durham's last and first frost, putting it 13,379 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within NC, it ranks 654 of 1,078.
Learn more
zone vs. frost date explains why Zone 8a and Durham's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range explains how to read the range around Durham's dates instead of trusting one.