Thunderbolt, GA 31404 Frost Dates
31404, near Thunderbolt, GA: the frost window
Around 03/02 is the usual last spring frost, about 186 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 11/30, roughly 270 days after the last spring frost.
Thunderbolt sits in USDA Zone 9a (20 to 25°F average annual minimum). The dates above are NOAA's 1991-2020 normal at the nearest reporting station, a 30-year average, not a forecast.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Thunderbolt'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.
How much risk comes with planting early here
03/02 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 02/04 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 03/25 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Thunderbolt against the rest of the dataset
About 270 days separate Thunderbolt's last and first frost, putting it 5,589 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within GA, it ranks 44 of 921.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 31404: local microclimates, on what one yard in Thunderbolt can differ from the 31404 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 9a and Thunderbolt's frost date answer different questions.