Windsor Heights, IA 50322 Frost Dates
Windsor Heights, IA: when does the frost end?
Around 04/19 is the usual last spring frost, about 234 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/18, roughly 179 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 Windsor Heights, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
With roughly 7 weeks until Windsor Heights's first fall frost, a row cover or cold frame is what stretches the last few weeks of harvest here.
Why 04/19 isn't a guarantee
04/19 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/05 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/03 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Windsor Heights against the rest of the dataset
About 179 days separate Windsor Heights's last and first frost, putting it 25,282 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within IA, it ranks 102 of 1,042.
Learn more
Before leaning on 50322's figures: zone vs. frost date explains why Zone 5b and Windsor Heights's frost date answer different questions, while the frost range explains how to read the range around Windsor Heights's dates instead of trusting one.