Clay Center, OH 43468 Frost Dates
43468, near Clay Center, OH: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 04/20, roughly 235 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/27, roughly 188 days after the last spring frost.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Clay Center in Zone 6b (-5 to 0°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
Clay Center'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.
Why 04/20 isn't a guarantee
04/20 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/05 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/07 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Clay Center against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 188 frost-free days, Clay Center places 22,208 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within OH, it ranks 415 of 1,383.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 43468: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 6b and Clay Center's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Clay Center's dates instead of trusting one.