Sarasota, FL 34220 Frost Dates
34220, near Sarasota, FL: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 01/16, roughly 141 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 01/11, roughly 365 days after the last spring frost.
Sarasota sits in USDA Zone 10a (30 to 35°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
Sarasota's growing season runs out in roughly 19 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
01/16 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 02/09 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 12/26 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Sarasota against the rest of the dataset
Sarasota's growing season runs about 365 days, ranking 807 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within FL, it ranks 303 of 1,609.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 34220: local microclimates, on what one yard in Sarasota can differ from the 34220 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 10a and Sarasota's frost date answer different questions.