Southern Shores, NC 27949 Frost Dates
27949, near Southern Shores, NC: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 03/15, about 199 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 12/06, roughly 266 days after the last spring frost.
Zone 9a (20 to 25°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 Southern Shores, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Southern Shores's growing season runs out in roughly 14 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
Why 03/15 isn't a guarantee
03/15 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 02/23 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 03/30 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Southern Shores against the rest of the dataset
About 266 days separate Southern Shores's last and first frost, putting it 5,935 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within NC, it ranks 19 of 1,078.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 27949: local microclimates, on what one yard in Southern Shores can differ from the 27949 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 9a and Southern Shores's frost date answer different questions.