Athens, AL 35612 Frost Dates
35612, near Athens, AL: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 03/20, roughly 204 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 11/12, roughly 238 days after the last spring frost.
Athens 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
Athens'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 03/20 isn't a guarantee
03/20 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 03/01 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 04/07 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Athens against the rest of the dataset
About 238 days separate Athens's last and first frost, putting it 8,933 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within AL, it ranks 340 of 809.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 35612: the frost range, on how to read the range around Athens's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Athens can differ from the 35612 normal.