Starke, FL 32042 Frost Dates
32042, near Starke, FL: the frost window
Around 03/03 is the usual last spring frost, about 187 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 12/02, roughly 277 days after the last spring frost.
Zone 9a (20 to 25°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 Starke, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Starke's growing season runs out in roughly 14 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 02/01 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 03/23 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Starke against the rest of the dataset
About 277 days separate Starke's last and first frost, putting it 4,983 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within FL, it ranks 1,457 of 1,609.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 32042: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 9a and Starke's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Starke's dates instead of trusting one.