McLain, MS 39461 Frost Dates
McLain, MS: when does the frost end?
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.
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 McLain, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
With roughly 11 weeks until McLain's first fall frost, a row cover or cold frame is what stretches the last few weeks of harvest here.
Why 03/18 isn't a guarantee
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 8,886 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within MS, it ranks 277 of 523.
Learn more
Before leaning on 39461's figures: the frost range explains how to read the range around McLain's dates instead of trusting one, while local microclimates explains what one yard in McLain can differ from the 39461 normal.