Ferguson, IA 50078 Frost Dates
50078, near Ferguson, IA: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 04/28, about 243 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/07, roughly 162 days after the last spring frost.
Ferguson 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
Ferguson'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.
The actual range around Ferguson's last frost
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.
Ferguson against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 162 frost-free days, Ferguson places 31,896 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within IA, it ranks 744 of 1,042.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 50078: the frost range, on how to read the range around Ferguson's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Ferguson can differ from the 50078 normal.