Petal, MS 39465 Frost Dates
39465, near Petal, MS: the frost window
Around 03/08 is the usual last spring frost, about 192 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 11/15, roughly 252 days after the last spring frost.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Petal 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
Petal'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 Petal's last frost
03/08 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 02/16 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 03/28 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Petal against the rest of the dataset
About 252 days separate Petal's last and first frost, putting it 7,218 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within MS, it ranks 120 of 523.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 39465: local microclimates, on what one yard in Petal can differ from the 39465 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 8b and Petal's frost date answer different questions.