Shaw, MS 38773 Frost Dates
38773, near Shaw, MS: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 03/14, roughly 198 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 11/15, roughly 248 days after the last spring frost.
Shaw 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
Shaw'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
03/14 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 02/25 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.
Shaw against the rest of the dataset
About 248 days separate Shaw's last and first frost, putting it 7,715 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within MS, it ranks 146 of 523.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 38773: local microclimates, on what one yard in Shaw can differ from the 38773 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 8b and Shaw's frost date answer different questions.