Elkhorn City, KY 41559 Frost Dates
41559, 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.
Elkhorn City 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
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 29,515 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within KY, it ranks 894 of 909.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 41559: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 7a and Elkhorn City's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Elkhorn City's dates instead of trusting one.