Butler, IN 46721 Frost Dates
46721, near Butler, IN: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 04/28, roughly 243 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/17, roughly 170 days after the last spring frost.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Butler in Zone 6a (-10 to -5°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
Butler'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.
How much risk comes with planting early here
04/28 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/14 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/13 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Butler against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 170 frost-free days, Butler places 29,030 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within IN, it ranks 802 of 927.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 46721: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 6a and Butler's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Butler's dates instead of trusting one.