Memphis, TN 38197 Frost Dates
38197, 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.
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
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
About 244 days separate Memphis's last and first frost, putting it 8,146 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within TN, it ranks 52 of 770.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 38197: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 8a and Memphis's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Memphis's dates instead of trusting one.