Northport, AL 35473 Frost Dates
35473, near Northport, AL: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 03/18, roughly 202 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 11/10, roughly 239 days after the last spring frost.
Zone 8b (15 to 20°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 Northport, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Northport'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
03/18 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.
Northport against the rest of the dataset
About 239 days separate Northport's last and first frost, putting it 8,785 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within AL, it ranks 317 of 809.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 35473: local microclimates, on what one yard in Northport can differ from the 35473 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 8b and Northport's frost date answer different questions.