Hickory, NC 28601 Frost Dates
28601, near Hickory, NC: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 03/31, roughly 215 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 11/04, roughly 219 days after the last spring frost.
Hickory sits in USDA Zone 8a (10 to 15°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
Hickory'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.
How much risk comes with planting early here
03/31 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 03/13 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.
Hickory against the rest of the dataset
Hickory's growing season runs about 219 days, ranking 12,959 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within NC, it ranks 607 of 1,078.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 28601: the frost range, on how to read the range around Hickory's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Hickory can differ from the 28601 normal.