Ankeny, IA 50332 Frost Dates
50332, near Ankeny, IA: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 04/23, roughly 238 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/15, roughly 173 days after the last spring frost.
Ankeny 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
Ankeny'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 04/23 isn't a guarantee
04/23 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 05/06 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Ankeny against the rest of the dataset
About 173 days separate Ankeny's last and first frost, putting it 27,701 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within IA, it ranks 227 of 1,042.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 50332: the frost range, on how to read the range around Ankeny's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Ankeny can differ from the 50332 normal.