What Cheer, IA 50268 Frost Dates
50268, near What Cheer, IA: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 04/21, about 236 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/16, roughly 176 days after the last spring frost.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts What Cheer 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
What Cheer's growing season runs out in roughly 7 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
Why 04/21 isn't a guarantee
04/21 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/08 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/04 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
What Cheer against the rest of the dataset
About 176 days separate What Cheer's last and first frost, putting it 26,595 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within IA, it ranks 151 of 1,042.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 50268: the frost range, on how to read the range around What Cheer's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in What Cheer can differ from the 50268 normal.