Dortches, NC 27809 Frost Dates
Dortches, NC: when does the frost end?
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 03/31, roughly 215 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 11/07, roughly 223 days after the last spring frost.
Zone 8a (10 to 15°F average annual minimum) comes from the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map; the frost dates above are the 1991-2020 normal at the nearest reporting NOAA station for Dortches, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
With roughly 10 weeks until Dortches's first fall frost, a row cover or cold frame is what stretches the last few weeks of harvest here.
How much risk comes with planting early here
03/31 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 03/10 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 04/13 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Dortches against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 223 frost-free days, Dortches places 12,098 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within NC, it ranks 447 of 1,078.
Learn more
Before leaning on 27809's figures: the frost range explains how to read the range around Dortches's dates instead of trusting one, while local microclimates explains what one yard in Dortches can differ from the 27809 normal.