FrostDateCheck

Athens-Clarke County, GA 30601 Frost Dates

30601, near Athens-Clarke County, GA: the frost window

Zone 8b

Around 03/23 is the usual last spring frost, about 207 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 11/10, roughly 232 days after the last spring frost.

The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Athens-Clarke County in Zone 8b (15 to 20°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

Athens-Clarke County's growing season runs out in roughly 11 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 Athens-Clarke County's last frost

03/23 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 03/02 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 04/10 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.

Athens-Clarke County against the rest of the dataset

At roughly 232 frost-free days, Athens-Clarke County places 10,015 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within GA, it ranks 468 of 921.

Learn more

Two guides worth reading on 30601: the frost range, on how to read the range around Athens-Clarke County's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Athens-Clarke County can differ from the 30601 normal.