Sumter, SC 29151 Frost Dates
When can you plant in Sumter, SC?
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 03/21, roughly 205 days out. The first fall frost typically arrives around 11/13, about 239 frost-free days later.
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 Sumter, not a forecast for this year.
What to do before the first frost
About 11 weeks of growing season left in Sumter before the first fall frost — a cold frame or row cover can stretch harvest weeks past that date.
The actual range around Sumter's last frost
03/21 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Plant by 02/28 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 Sumter compares
At roughly 239 frost-free days, Sumter places 8,771 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within SC, it ranks 194 of 519.
Learn more
zone vs. frost date covers why Zone 8b and Sumter's frost date answer different questions. the frost range covers how to read the range around Sumter's dates instead of trusting one.