Ankeny, IA 50394 Frost Dates
50394, near Ankeny, IA: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 04/23, about 238 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/15, roughly 173 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 Ankeny, not a forecast for this year.
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.
How much risk comes with planting early here
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
At roughly 173 frost-free days, Ankeny places 27,721 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within IA, it ranks 247 of 1,042.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 50394: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 5b and Ankeny's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Ankeny's dates instead of trusting one.