Charleston, SC 29414 Frost Dates
29414, near Charleston, SC: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 03/07, roughly 191 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 11/27, roughly 266 days after the last spring frost.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Charleston in Zone 9a (20 to 25°F average annual minimum); frost dates are NOAA's 1991-2020 station normal, not this year's forecast.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Charleston'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.
The actual range around Charleston's last frost
03/07 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 02/12 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 03/27 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Charleston against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 266 frost-free days, Charleston places 5,908 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within SC, it ranks 41 of 519.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 29414: the frost range, on how to read the range around Charleston's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Charleston can differ from the 29414 normal.