Riley, IN 47846 Frost Dates
47846, near Riley, IN: the frost window
Around 04/14 is the usual last spring frost, about 229 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/24, roughly 192 days after the last spring frost.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Riley 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
Riley'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.
Why 04/14 isn't a guarantee
04/14 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 03/31 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/02 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Riley against the rest of the dataset
About 192 days separate Riley's last and first frost, putting it 20,566 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within IN, it ranks 229 of 927.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 47846: local microclimates, on what one yard in Riley can differ from the 47846 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 6a and Riley's frost date answer different questions.