West Jefferson, NC 28626 Frost Dates
28626, near West Jefferson, NC: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 05/02, about 247 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/13, roughly 163 days after the last spring frost.
Zone 7a (0 to 5°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 West Jefferson, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
West Jefferson's growing season runs out in roughly 7 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
05/02 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/17 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/19 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
West Jefferson against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 163 frost-free days, West Jefferson places 31,436 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within NC, it ranks 1,051 of 1,078.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 28626: local microclimates, on what one yard in West Jefferson can differ from the 28626 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 7a and West Jefferson's frost date answer different questions.