Hilton Head Island, SC 29926 Frost Dates
29926, near Hilton Head Island, SC: the frost window
Around 03/03 is the usual last spring frost, about 187 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 12/09, roughly 282 days after the last spring frost.
Zone 9b (25 to 30°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 Hilton Head Island, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Hilton Head Island's growing season runs out in roughly 15 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
03/03 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 02/02 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 03/20 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Hilton Head Island against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 282 frost-free days, Hilton Head Island places 4,767 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within SC, it ranks 14 of 519.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 29926: the frost range, on how to read the range around Hilton Head Island's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Hilton Head Island can differ from the 29926 normal.