Rochester, KY 42273 Frost Dates
42273, near Rochester, KY: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 04/15, roughly 230 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/20, roughly 187 days after the last spring frost.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Rochester in Zone 7a (0 to 5°F average annual minimum); frost dates are NOAA's 1991-2020 station normal, not this year's forecast.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Rochester's growing season runs out in roughly 8 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
The actual range around Rochester's last frost
04/15 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 03/31 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/03 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Rochester against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 187 frost-free days, Rochester places 22,630 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within KY, it ranks 688 of 909.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 42273: local microclimates, on what one yard in Rochester can differ from the 42273 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 7a and Rochester's frost date answer different questions.