Prairie City, IA 50228 Frost Dates
Prairie City, IA: when does the frost end?
The last spring frost here typically falls around 04/21, about 236 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/15, roughly 174 days after the last spring frost.
Prairie City 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
With roughly 7 weeks until Prairie City'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
04/21 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 05/05 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Prairie City against the rest of the dataset
About 174 days separate Prairie City's last and first frost, putting it 27,511 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within IA, it ranks 189 of 1,042.
Learn more
Before leaning on 50228's figures: zone vs. frost date explains why Zone 5b and Prairie City's frost date answer different questions, while the frost range explains how to read the range around Prairie City's dates instead of trusting one.