Sonora, KY 42740 Frost Dates
42740, near Sonora, KY: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 04/16, about 231 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/25, roughly 191 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 Sonora, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Sonora'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.
How much risk comes with planting early here
04/16 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 05/04 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Sonora against the rest of the dataset
About 191 days separate Sonora's last and first frost, putting it 20,876 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within KY, it ranks 512 of 909.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 42740: local microclimates, on what one yard in Sonora can differ from the 42740 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 7a and Sonora's frost date answer different questions.