Maxwell, IA 50161 Frost Dates
50161, near Maxwell, IA: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 04/26, about 241 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/12, roughly 168 days after the last spring frost.
Maxwell 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
Maxwell'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.
Maxwell against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 168 frost-free days, Maxwell places 29,747 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within IA, it ranks 379 of 1,042.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 50161: local microclimates, on what one yard in Maxwell can differ from the 50161 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 5b and Maxwell's frost date answer different questions.