Madison, AL 35742 Frost Dates
Madison, AL: when does the frost end?
Around 03/20 is the usual last spring frost, about 204 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 11/12, roughly 238 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 Madison, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
With roughly 11 weeks until Madison's first fall frost, a row cover or cold frame is what stretches the last few weeks of harvest here.
The actual range around Madison's last frost
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.
Madison against the rest of the dataset
Madison's growing season runs about 238 days, ranking 8,928 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within AL, it ranks 338 of 809.
Learn more
Before leaning on 35742's figures: the frost range explains how to read the range around Madison's dates instead of trusting one, while local microclimates explains what one yard in Madison can differ from the 35742 normal.