Lake City, FL 32072 Frost Dates
32072, near Lake City, FL: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 02/24, roughly 180 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 12/07, roughly 287 days after the last spring frost.
Lake City 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
Lake City'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.
Why 02/24 isn't a guarantee
02/24 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 01/28 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 03/17 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Lake City against the rest of the dataset
Lake City's growing season runs about 287 days, ranking 4,586 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within FL, it ranks 1,345 of 1,609.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 32072: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 9a and Lake City's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Lake City's dates instead of trusting one.