Mulga, AL 35246 Frost Dates
35246, 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.
Mulga sits in USDA Zone 8a (10 to 15°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
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
Mulga's growing season runs about 236 days, ranking 9,478 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within AL, it ranks 402 of 809.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 35246: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 8a and Mulga's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Mulga's dates instead of trusting one.