McKenzie, AL 36456 Frost Dates
36456, near McKenzie, AL: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 03/13, roughly 197 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 11/19, roughly 253 days after the last spring frost.
McKenzie sits in USDA Zone 8b (15 to 20°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
McKenzie's growing season runs out in roughly 12 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
03/13 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 02/18 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 03/31 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
McKenzie against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 253 frost-free days, McKenzie places 7,179 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within AL, it ranks 189 of 809.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 36456: local microclimates, on what one yard in McKenzie can differ from the 36456 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 8b and McKenzie's frost date answer different questions.