Gainesville, FL 32641 Frost Dates
32641, near Gainesville, FL: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 03/03, about 187 days from today. 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 Gainesville, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Gainesville'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.
Gainesville against the rest of the dataset
Gainesville's growing season runs about 277 days, ranking 4,956 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within FL, it ranks 1,450 of 1,609.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 32641: the frost range, on how to read the range around Gainesville's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Gainesville can differ from the 32641 normal.