Beaufort, NC 28581 Frost Dates
28581, near Beaufort, NC: the frost window
Around 03/11 is the usual last spring frost, about 195 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 11/30, roughly 261 days after the last spring frost.
Beaufort 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
Beaufort's growing season runs out in roughly 13 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
Why 03/11 isn't a guarantee
03/11 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 02/19 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.
Beaufort against the rest of the dataset
About 261 days separate Beaufort's last and first frost, putting it 6,404 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within NC, it ranks 37 of 1,078.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 28581: local microclimates, on what one yard in Beaufort can differ from the 28581 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 8b and Beaufort's frost date answer different questions.