Houston, MS 38851 Frost Dates
38851, near Houston, MS: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 03/28, about 212 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 11/01, roughly 220 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 Houston, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Houston's growing season runs out in roughly 9 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
03/28 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 03/06 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 04/15 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Houston against the rest of the dataset
Houston's growing season runs about 220 days, ranking 12,809 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within MS, it ranks 451 of 523.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 38851: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 8a and Houston's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Houston's dates instead of trusting one.