Sarasota, FL 34260 Frost Dates
34260, 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.
Why 01/16 isn't a guarantee
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 820 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within FL, it ranks 316 of 1,609.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 34260: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 10a and Sarasota's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Sarasota's dates instead of trusting one.