Bluffton, IN 46714 Frost Dates
46714, near Bluffton, IN: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 04/23, roughly 238 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/19, roughly 178 days after the last spring frost.
Bluffton sits in USDA Zone 6a (-10 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
Bluffton's growing season runs out in roughly 7 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
Why 04/23 isn't a guarantee
04/23 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/07 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/08 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Bluffton against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 178 frost-free days, Bluffton places 25,650 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within IN, it ranks 583 of 927.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 46714: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 6a and Bluffton's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Bluffton's dates instead of trusting one.