Mulga, AL 35123 Frost Dates
35123, near Mulga, AL: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 03/21, roughly 205 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 11/11, roughly 236 days after the last spring frost.
Zone 8a (10 to 15°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 Mulga, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Mulga'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.
Why 03/21 isn't a guarantee
03/21 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 02/28 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 04/08 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Mulga against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 236 frost-free days, Mulga places 9,467 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within AL, it ranks 391 of 809.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 35123: the frost range, on how to read the range around Mulga's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Mulga can differ from the 35123 normal.