FrostDateCheck

Heidelberg, MS 39439 Frost Dates

39439, near Heidelberg, MS: the frost window

Zone 8b

Around 03/12 is the usual last spring frost, about 196 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 11/12, roughly 244 days after the last spring frost.

Heidelberg 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

Heidelberg'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 03/12 isn't a guarantee

03/12 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 02/22 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 04/01 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.

Heidelberg against the rest of the dataset

At roughly 244 frost-free days, Heidelberg places 8,265 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within MS, it ranks 214 of 523.

Learn more

Two guides worth reading on 39439: local microclimates, on what one yard in Heidelberg can differ from the 39439 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 8b and Heidelberg's frost date answer different questions.