Prentiss, MS 39474 Frost Dates
39474, near Prentiss, MS: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 03/12, roughly 196 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 11/10, roughly 242 days after the last spring frost.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Prentiss 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
Prentiss'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.
Why 03/12 isn't a guarantee
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 04/03 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Prentiss against the rest of the dataset
Prentiss's growing season runs about 242 days, ranking 8,388 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within MS, it ranks 241 of 523.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 39474: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 8b and Prentiss's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Prentiss's dates instead of trusting one.