Tuscaloosa, AL 35404 Frost Dates
35404, near Tuscaloosa, AL: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 03/18, about 202 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 11/10, roughly 239 days after the last spring frost.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Tuscaloosa in Zone 8b (15 to 20°F average annual minimum); frost dates are NOAA's 1991-2020 station normal, not this year's forecast.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Tuscaloosa'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.
The actual range around Tuscaloosa's last frost
03/18 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 02/26 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 04/04 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Tuscaloosa against the rest of the dataset
Tuscaloosa's growing season runs about 239 days, ranking 8,745 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within AL, it ranks 311 of 809.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 35404: the frost range, on how to read the range around Tuscaloosa's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Tuscaloosa can differ from the 35404 normal.