Lacona, IA 50145 Frost Dates
Lacona, IA: when does the frost end?
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 04/24, roughly 239 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/12, roughly 168 days after the last spring frost.
Zone 5b (-15 to -10°F average annual minimum) comes from the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map; the frost dates above are the 1991-2020 normal at the nearest reporting NOAA station for Lacona, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
With roughly 6 weeks until Lacona'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
04/24 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.
Lacona against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 168 frost-free days, Lacona places 29,779 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within IA, it ranks 391 of 1,042.
Learn more
Before leaning on 50145's figures: the frost range explains how to read the range around Lacona's dates instead of trusting one, while local microclimates explains what one yard in Lacona can differ from the 50145 normal.