FrostDateCheck

Rhodes, IA 50234 Frost Dates

50234, near Rhodes, IA: the frost window

Zone 5b

Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 04/24, roughly 239 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/12, roughly 170 days after the last spring frost.

The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Rhodes 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

Rhodes'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 Rhodes's last frost

04/24 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/09 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/07 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.

Rhodes against the rest of the dataset

At roughly 170 frost-free days, Rhodes places 29,225 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within IA, it ranks 317 of 1,042.

Learn more

Two guides worth reading on 50234: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 5b and Rhodes's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Rhodes's dates instead of trusting one.