FrostDateCheck

Buckeye, IA 50043 Frost Dates

Frost dates for Buckeye, IA, ZIP 50043

Zone 5a

Around 04/28 is the usual last spring frost, about 243 days away. The first fall frost typically arrives around 10/10, about 164 frost-free days later.

Buckeye 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.

What to do before the first frost

Zone 5a around Buckeye has about 6 weeks left before the first fall frost — that's the usual window to get a cold frame up if you want to keep harvesting past it.

How much risk comes with planting early here

04/28 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Plant by 04/13 and you're betting against frost in roughly 9 years out of 10. 05/11 is the safer bet, historically only a 1-in-10 chance of frost that late.

How Buckeye compares

At roughly 164 frost-free days, Buckeye places 31,256 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within IA, it ranks 654 of 1,042.

Learn more

the frost range explains how to read the range around Buckeye's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates explains what one yard in Buckeye can differ from the 50043 normal.