Paducah, KY 42001 Frost Dates
42001, near Paducah, KY: the frost window
Around 04/06 is the usual last spring frost, about 221 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/27, roughly 203 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 Paducah, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Paducah'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 04/06 isn't a guarantee
04/06 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 03/21 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 04/23 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Paducah against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 203 frost-free days, Paducah places 16,852 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within KY, it ranks 240 of 909.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 42001: local microclimates, on what one yard in Paducah can differ from the 42001 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 7a and Paducah's frost date answer different questions.