Elkhorn City, KY 41542 Frost Dates
41542, near Elkhorn City, KY: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 04/29, about 244 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/16, roughly 169 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 Elkhorn City, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Elkhorn City'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.
How much risk comes with planting early here
04/29 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/15 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/15 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Elkhorn City against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 169 frost-free days, Elkhorn City places 29,514 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within KY, it ranks 893 of 909.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 41542: the frost range, on how to read the range around Elkhorn City's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Elkhorn City can differ from the 41542 normal.