Van Meter, IA 50261 Frost Dates
Van Meter, IA: when does the frost end?
The last spring frost here typically falls around 04/30, about 245 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/03, roughly 157 days after the last spring frost.
Van Meter 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 5 weeks until Van Meter's first fall frost, a row cover or cold frame is what stretches the last few weeks of harvest here.
The actual range around Van Meter's last frost
04/30 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/17 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/11 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Van Meter against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 157 frost-free days, Van Meter places 33,345 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within IA, it ranks 832 of 1,042.
Learn more
Before leaning on 50261's figures: the frost range explains how to read the range around Van Meter's dates instead of trusting one, while local microclimates explains what one yard in Van Meter can differ from the 50261 normal.