Spring Lake, NC 28331 Frost Dates
28331, near Spring Lake, NC: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 03/30, roughly 214 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 11/10, roughly 227 days after the last spring frost.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Spring Lake 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
Spring Lake's growing season runs out in roughly 11 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
03/30 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 03/09 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 04/16 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Spring Lake against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 227 frost-free days, Spring Lake places 10,989 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within NC, it ranks 342 of 1,078.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 28331: the frost range, on how to read the range around Spring Lake's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Spring Lake can differ from the 28331 normal.