Elizabeth, IN 47117 Frost Dates
47117, near Elizabeth, IN: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 03/31, about 215 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 11/07, roughly 222 days after the last spring frost.
Elizabeth sits in USDA Zone 7a (0 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
Elizabeth's growing season runs out in roughly 10 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
Why 03/31 isn't a guarantee
03/31 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 03/14 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 04/16 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Elizabeth against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 222 frost-free days, Elizabeth places 12,356 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within IN, it ranks 20 of 927.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 47117: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 7a and Elizabeth's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Elizabeth's dates instead of trusting one.