Lexington-Fayette urban county, KY 40576 Frost Dates
40576, near Lexington-Fayette urban county, KY: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 04/13, roughly 228 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/28, roughly 196 days after the last spring frost.
Zone 7a (0 to 5°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 Lexington-Fayette urban county, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Lexington-Fayette urban county'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.
Why 04/13 isn't a guarantee
04/13 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 03/30 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/01 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Lexington-Fayette urban county against the rest of the dataset
Lexington-Fayette urban county's growing season runs about 196 days, ranking 18,886 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within KY, it ranks 366 of 909.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 40576: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 7a and Lexington-Fayette urban county's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Lexington-Fayette urban county's dates instead of trusting one.