Pine Knoll Shores, NC 28512 Frost Dates
28512, near Pine Knoll Shores, NC: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 03/03, roughly 187 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 12/13, roughly 286 days after the last spring frost.
Pine Knoll Shores sits in USDA Zone 8b (15 to 20°F average annual minimum). The dates above are NOAA's 1991-2020 normal at the nearest reporting station, a 30-year average, not a forecast.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Pine Knoll Shores's growing season runs out in roughly 15 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
Why 03/03 isn't a guarantee
03/03 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 02/09 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 03/21 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Pine Knoll Shores against the rest of the dataset
About 286 days separate Pine Knoll Shores's last and first frost, putting it 4,616 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within NC, it ranks 8 of 1,078.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 28512: the frost range, on how to read the range around Pine Knoll Shores's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Pine Knoll Shores can differ from the 28512 normal.