McKee, KY 40486 Frost Dates
40486, near McKee, KY: the frost window
Around 04/24 is the usual last spring frost, about 239 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/19, roughly 178 days after the last spring frost.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts McKee in Zone 6b (-5 to 0°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
McKee's growing season runs out in roughly 7 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
Why 04/24 isn't a guarantee
04/24 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/09 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/12 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
McKee against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 178 frost-free days, McKee places 25,839 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within KY, it ranks 812 of 909.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 40486: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 6b and McKee's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around McKee's dates instead of trusting one.