Jackson, KY 41317 Frost Dates
41317, near Jackson, KY: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 04/19, about 234 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/24, roughly 187 days after the last spring frost.
Jackson 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
Jackson's growing season runs out in roughly 8 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
04/19 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/04 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/05 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Jackson against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 187 frost-free days, Jackson places 22,423 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within KY, it ranks 666 of 909.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 41317: local microclimates, on what one yard in Jackson can differ from the 41317 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 7a and Jackson's frost date answer different questions.