Fruithurst, AL 36261 Frost Dates
36261, near Fruithurst, AL: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 04/06, roughly 221 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/31, roughly 206 days after the last spring frost.
Fruithurst 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
Fruithurst's growing season runs out in roughly 9 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
04/06 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 03/20 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 04/22 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Fruithurst against the rest of the dataset
About 206 days separate Fruithurst's last and first frost, putting it 16,133 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within AL, it ranks 782 of 809.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 36261: the frost range, on how to read the range around Fruithurst's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Fruithurst can differ from the 36261 normal.