Memphis, TN 37501 Frost Dates
37501, near Memphis, TN: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 03/16, about 200 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 11/16, roughly 244 days after the last spring frost.
Memphis 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
Memphis'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 03/16 isn't a guarantee
03/16 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 02/27 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 04/04 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Memphis against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 244 frost-free days, Memphis places 8,095 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within TN, it ranks 1 of 770.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 37501: local microclimates, on what one yard in Memphis can differ from the 37501 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 8a and Memphis's frost date answer different questions.