Columbia, KY 42728 Frost Dates
Columbia, KY: when does the frost end?
The last spring frost here typically falls around 04/18, about 233 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/24, roughly 189 days after the last spring frost.
Columbia 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
With roughly 8 weeks until Columbia's first fall frost, a row cover or cold frame is what stretches the last few weeks of harvest here.
Why 04/18 isn't a guarantee
04/18 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/02 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.
Columbia against the rest of the dataset
About 189 days separate Columbia's last and first frost, putting it 21,553 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within KY, it ranks 559 of 909.
Learn more
Before leaning on 42728's figures: the frost range explains how to read the range around Columbia's dates instead of trusting one, while local microclimates explains what one yard in Columbia can differ from the 42728 normal.