Science Hill, KY 42553 Frost Dates
42553, near Science Hill, KY: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 04/05, about 220 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/30, roughly 206 days after the last spring frost.
Science Hill 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
Science Hill'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
04/05 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 04/25 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Science Hill against the rest of the dataset
About 206 days separate Science Hill's last and first frost, putting it 16,088 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within KY, it ranks 204 of 909.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 42553: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 7a and Science Hill's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Science Hill's dates instead of trusting one.