FrostDateCheck

Memphis, TN 38168 Frost Dates

Memphis, TN: when does the frost end?

Zone 8a

Around 03/16 is the usual last spring frost, about 200 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 11/16, roughly 244 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 Memphis, not a forecast for this year.

Stretching the season past the first frost

With roughly 11 weeks until Memphis's first fall frost, a row cover or cold frame is what stretches the last few weeks of harvest here.

The actual range around Memphis's last frost

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

Memphis's growing season runs about 244 days, ranking 8,131 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within TN, it ranks 37 of 770.

Learn more

Before leaning on 38168's figures: the frost range explains how to read the range around Memphis's dates instead of trusting one, while local microclimates explains what one yard in Memphis can differ from the 38168 normal.