Beaufort, NC 28516 Frost Dates
28516, near Beaufort, NC: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 03/10, about 194 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 12/01, roughly 265 days after the last spring frost.
Zone 8b (15 to 20°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 Beaufort, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Beaufort'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 03/10 isn't a guarantee
03/10 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 02/18 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 03/26 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Beaufort against the rest of the dataset
About 265 days separate Beaufort's last and first frost, putting it 5,982 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within NC, it ranks 28 of 1,078.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 28516: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 8b and Beaufort's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Beaufort's dates instead of trusting one.