Picayune, MS 39463 Frost Dates
39463, near Picayune, MS: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 03/09, about 193 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 11/18, roughly 255 days after the last spring frost.
Zone 9a (20 to 25°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 Picayune, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Picayune's growing season runs out in roughly 12 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
Why 03/09 isn't a guarantee
03/09 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 02/17 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 03/31 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Picayune against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 255 frost-free days, Picayune places 6,908 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within MS, it ranks 92 of 523.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 39463: local microclimates, on what one yard in Picayune can differ from the 39463 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 9a and Picayune's frost date answer different questions.