Crofton, KY 42217 Frost Dates
42217, near Crofton, KY: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 04/04, roughly 219 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 11/02, roughly 211 days after the last spring frost.
Crofton 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
Crofton'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 04/04 isn't a guarantee
04/04 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 03/18 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 04/19 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Crofton against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 211 frost-free days, Crofton places 14,830 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within KY, it ranks 127 of 909.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 42217: the frost range, on how to read the range around Crofton's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Crofton can differ from the 42217 normal.