Metcalfe, MS 38760 Frost Dates
38760, near Metcalfe, MS: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 03/12, about 196 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 11/13, roughly 247 days after the last spring frost.
Zone 8b (15 to 20°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 Metcalfe, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Metcalfe'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
03/12 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 02/21 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.
Metcalfe against the rest of the dataset
Metcalfe's growing season runs about 247 days, ranking 7,865 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within MS, it ranks 158 of 523.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 38760: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 8b and Metcalfe's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Metcalfe's dates instead of trusting one.