Alligator, MS 38720 Frost Dates
38720, near Alligator, MS: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 03/16, roughly 200 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 11/12, roughly 243 days after the last spring frost.
Alligator 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
Alligator'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.
How much risk comes with planting early here
03/16 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 02/26 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 04/02 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Alligator against the rest of the dataset
Alligator's growing season runs about 243 days, ranking 8,339 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within MS, it ranks 230 of 523.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 38720: the frost range, on how to read the range around Alligator's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Alligator can differ from the 38720 normal.