Tarboro, NC 27881 Frost Dates
Frost dates for Tarboro, NC, ZIP 27881
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 03/30, roughly 214 days out. The first fall frost typically arrives around 11/09, about 226 frost-free days later.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Tarboro 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 Tarboro 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.
Why 03/30 isn't a guarantee
03/30 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. 04/10 is the safer bet, historically only a 1-in-10 chance of frost that late.
How Tarboro compares
At roughly 226 frost-free days, Tarboro places 11,168 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within NC, it ranks 359 of 1,078.
Learn more
zone vs. frost date explains why Zone 8a and Tarboro's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range explains how to read the range around Tarboro's dates instead of trusting one.