Dayton, OH 45406 Frost Dates
Dayton, OH: when does the frost end?
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 04/16, roughly 231 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/28, roughly 194 days after the last spring frost.
Zone 6b (-5 to 0°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 Dayton, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
With roughly 9 weeks until Dayton's first fall frost, a row cover or cold frame is what stretches the last few weeks of harvest here.
Why 04/16 isn't a guarantee
04/16 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.
Dayton against the rest of the dataset
Dayton's growing season runs about 194 days, ranking 19,408 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within OH, it ranks 147 of 1,383.
Learn more
Before leaning on 45406's figures: the frost range explains how to read the range around Dayton's dates instead of trusting one, while local microclimates explains what one yard in Dayton can differ from the 45406 normal.