McLain, MS 39456 Frost Dates
39456, near McLain, MS: the frost window
Around 03/18 is the usual last spring frost, about 202 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 11/12, roughly 239 days after the last spring frost.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts McLain in Zone 8b (15 to 20°F average annual minimum); frost dates are NOAA's 1991-2020 station normal, not this year's forecast.
Stretching the season past the first frost
McLain'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.
The actual range around McLain's last frost
03/18 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 02/25 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 04/06 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
McLain against the rest of the dataset
About 239 days separate McLain's last and first frost, putting it 8,885 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within MS, it ranks 276 of 523.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 39456: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 8b and McLain's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around McLain's dates instead of trusting one.