Matthews, IN 46957 Frost Dates
46957, near Matthews, IN: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 04/26, roughly 241 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/20, roughly 175 days after the last spring frost.
Matthews 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
Matthews's growing season runs out in roughly 8 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
04/26 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/11 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/12 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Matthews against the rest of the dataset
Matthews's growing season runs about 175 days, ranking 27,173 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within IN, it ranks 646 of 927.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 46957: local microclimates, on what one yard in Matthews can differ from the 46957 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 6a and Matthews's frost date answer different questions.