Poneto, IN 46766 Frost Dates
46766, near Poneto, IN: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 05/01, roughly 246 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/14, roughly 166 days after the last spring frost.
Poneto 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
Poneto'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 05/01 isn't a guarantee
05/01 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/17 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/16 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Poneto against the rest of the dataset
About 166 days separate Poneto's last and first frost, putting it 30,458 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within IN, it ranks 868 of 927.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 46766: local microclimates, on what one yard in Poneto can differ from the 46766 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 6a and Poneto's frost date answer different questions.