Boone, IA 50036 Frost Dates
50036, near Boone, IA: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 04/28, roughly 243 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/12, roughly 165 days after the last spring frost.
Boone sits in USDA Zone 5a (-20 to -15°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
Boone's growing season runs out in roughly 6 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 04/13 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/11 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Boone against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 165 frost-free days, Boone places 30,521 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within IA, it ranks 489 of 1,042.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 50036: local microclimates, on what one yard in Boone can differ from the 50036 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 5a and Boone's frost date answer different questions.