Lake Helen, FL 32198 Frost Dates
32198, near Lake Helen, FL: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 02/17, roughly 173 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 12/30, roughly 310 days after the last spring frost.
Lake Helen sits in USDA Zone 9b (25 to 30°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 Helen's growing season runs out in roughly 18 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
02/17 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 01/14 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 03/19 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Lake Helen against the rest of the dataset
About 310 days separate Lake Helen's last and first frost, putting it 3,583 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within FL, it ranks 1,272 of 1,609.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 32198: the frost range, on how to read the range around Lake Helen's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Lake Helen can differ from the 32198 normal.