Calera, AL 35040 Frost Dates
35040, near Calera, AL: the frost window
Around 03/12 is the usual last spring frost, about 196 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 11/16, roughly 248 days after the last spring frost.
Calera sits in USDA Zone 8b (15 to 20°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
Calera's growing season runs out in roughly 11 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
03/12 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 02/20 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 03/31 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Calera against the rest of the dataset
Calera's growing season runs about 248 days, ranking 7,681 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within AL, it ranks 216 of 809.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 35040: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 8b and Calera's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Calera's dates instead of trusting one.