Smiths Grove, KY 42171 Frost Dates
42171, near Smiths Grove, KY: the frost window
Around 04/09 is the usual last spring frost, about 224 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/30, roughly 204 days after the last spring frost.
Smiths Grove 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
Smiths Grove'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.
How much risk comes with planting early here
04/09 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 04/29 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Smiths Grove against the rest of the dataset
About 204 days separate Smiths Grove's last and first frost, putting it 16,688 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within KY, it ranks 221 of 909.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 42171: the frost range, on how to read the range around Smiths Grove's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Smiths Grove can differ from the 42171 normal.