Cambridge, IA 50046 Frost Dates
50046, near Cambridge, IA: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 04/26, roughly 241 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/12, roughly 168 days after the last spring frost.
Cambridge sits in USDA Zone 5b (-15 to -10°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
Cambridge'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
04/26 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 05/08 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Cambridge against the rest of the dataset
Cambridge's growing season runs about 168 days, ranking 29,748 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within IA, it ranks 380 of 1,042.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 50046: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 5b and Cambridge's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Cambridge's dates instead of trusting one.