Fayette, MS 39081 Frost Dates
39081, near Fayette, MS: the frost window
Around 03/17 is the usual last spring frost, about 201 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 11/12, roughly 241 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 Fayette, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Fayette'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.
Why 03/17 isn't a guarantee
03/17 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 02/24 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 04/07 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Fayette against the rest of the dataset
About 241 days separate Fayette's last and first frost, putting it 8,587 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within MS, it ranks 251 of 523.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 39081: local microclimates, on what one yard in Fayette can differ from the 39081 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 8b and Fayette's frost date answer different questions.