Stanford, KY 40484 Frost Dates
40484, near Stanford, KY: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 04/09, about 224 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/27, roughly 199 days after the last spring frost.
Stanford sits in USDA Zone 7a (0 to 5°F average annual minimum). The dates above are NOAA's 1991-2020 normal at the nearest reporting station, a 30-year average, not a forecast.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Stanford's growing season runs out in roughly 9 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
How much risk comes with planting early here
04/09 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 03/27 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 04/29 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Stanford against the rest of the dataset
Stanford's growing season runs about 199 days, ranking 18,114 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within KY, it ranks 286 of 909.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 40484: local microclimates, on what one yard in Stanford can differ from the 40484 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 7a and Stanford's frost date answer different questions.