Central City, KY 42330 Frost Dates
Central City, KY: when does the frost end?
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.
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 Central City, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
With roughly 8 weeks until Central City's first fall frost, a row cover or cold frame is what stretches the last few weeks of harvest here.
Why 04/15 isn't a guarantee
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.
Central City against the rest of the dataset
Central City's growing season runs about 187 days, ranking 22,354 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within KY, it ranks 646 of 909.
Learn more
Before leaning on 42330's figures: local microclimates explains what one yard in Central City can differ from the 42330 normal, while zone vs. frost date explains why Zone 7a and Central City's frost date answer different questions.