Ellston, IA 50074 Frost Dates
Ellston, IA: when does the frost end?
Around 04/23 is the usual last spring frost, about 238 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/17, roughly 176 days after the last spring frost.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Ellston in Zone 5b (-15 to -10°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
With roughly 7 weeks until Ellston's first fall frost, a row cover or cold frame is what stretches the last few weeks of harvest here.
How much risk comes with planting early here
04/23 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/07 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/06 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Ellston against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 176 frost-free days, Ellston places 26,688 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within IA, it ranks 169 of 1,042.
Learn more
Before leaning on 50074's figures: local microclimates explains what one yard in Ellston can differ from the 50074 normal, while zone vs. frost date explains why Zone 5b and Ellston's frost date answer different questions.