Catawba, NC 28673 Frost Dates
When can you plant in Catawba, NC?
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 03/24, roughly 208 days out. The first fall frost typically arrives around 11/08, about 230 frost-free days later.
Zone 8a (10 to 15°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 Catawba, not a forecast for this year.
What to do before the first frost
About 10 weeks of growing season left in Catawba before the first fall frost — a cold frame or row cover can stretch harvest weeks past that date.
The actual range around Catawba's last frost
03/24 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Plant by 03/05 and you're betting against frost in roughly 9 years out of 10. 04/09 is the safer bet, historically only a 1-in-10 chance of frost that late.
How Catawba compares
At roughly 230 frost-free days, Catawba places 10,456 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within NC, it ranks 233 of 1,078.
Learn more
the frost range covers how to read the range around Catawba's dates instead of trusting one. local microclimates covers what one yard in Catawba can differ from the 28673 normal.