Stuart, IA 50250 Frost Dates
50250, near Stuart, IA: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 05/02, about 247 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/03, roughly 153 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 Stuart, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Stuart's growing season runs out in roughly 5 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 Stuart's last frost
05/02 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/18 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/17 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Stuart against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 153 frost-free days, Stuart places 34,546 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within IA, it ranks 919 of 1,042.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 50250: local microclimates, on what one yard in Stuart can differ from the 50250 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 5b and Stuart's frost date answer different questions.