Charleston, MS 38920 Frost Dates
38920, near Charleston, MS: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 03/07, roughly 191 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 11/17, roughly 254 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 Charleston, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Charleston's growing season runs out in roughly 12 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
Why 03/07 isn't a guarantee
03/07 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 02/15 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 03/27 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Charleston against the rest of the dataset
About 254 days separate Charleston's last and first frost, putting it 7,037 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within MS, it ranks 101 of 523.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 38920: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 8a and Charleston's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Charleston's dates instead of trusting one.