Horse Cave, KY 42152 Frost Dates
Horse Cave, KY: when does the frost end?
The last spring frost here typically falls around 04/05, about 220 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 11/02, roughly 211 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 Horse Cave, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
With roughly 9 weeks until Horse Cave's first fall frost, a row cover or cold frame is what stretches the last few weeks of harvest here.
Why 04/05 isn't a guarantee
04/05 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 04/24 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Horse Cave against the rest of the dataset
Horse Cave's growing season runs about 211 days, ranking 14,778 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within KY, it ranks 116 of 909.
Learn more
Before leaning on 42152's figures: local microclimates explains what one yard in Horse Cave can differ from the 42152 normal, while zone vs. frost date explains why Zone 7a and Horse Cave's frost date answer different questions.