Cerro Gordo, NC 28430 Frost Dates
28430, near Cerro Gordo, NC: the frost window
Around 04/01 is the usual last spring frost, about 216 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 11/05, roughly 219 days after the last spring frost.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Cerro Gordo in Zone 8b (15 to 20°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
Cerro Gordo's growing season runs out in roughly 10 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
The actual range around Cerro Gordo's last frost
04/01 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 03/12 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.
Cerro Gordo against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 219 frost-free days, Cerro Gordo places 13,121 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within NC, it ranks 638 of 1,078.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 28430: local microclimates, on what one yard in Cerro Gordo can differ from the 28430 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 8b and Cerro Gordo's frost date answer different questions.