Laurel, MS 39440 Frost Dates
39440, near Laurel, MS: the frost window
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.
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 Laurel, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Laurel'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
03/12 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.
Laurel against the rest of the dataset
About 244 days separate Laurel's last and first frost, putting it 8,212 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within MS, it ranks 204 of 523.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 39440: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 8b and Laurel's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Laurel's dates instead of trusting one.