Fairhope, AL 36559 Frost Dates
36559, near Fairhope, AL: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 03/10, about 194 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 11/17, roughly 253 days after the last spring frost.
Zone 9a (20 to 25°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 Fairhope, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Fairhope'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.
Why 03/10 isn't a guarantee
03/10 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 02/20 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 03/30 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Fairhope against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 253 frost-free days, Fairhope places 7,088 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within AL, it ranks 184 of 809.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 36559: local microclimates, on what one yard in Fairhope can differ from the 36559 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 9a and Fairhope's frost date answer different questions.