Ankeny, IA 50396 Frost Dates
Ankeny, IA: when does the frost end?
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
With roughly 7 weeks until Ankeny's first fall frost, a row cover or cold frame is what stretches the last few weeks of harvest here.
The actual range around Ankeny's last frost
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 27,723 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within IA, it ranks 249 of 1,042.
Learn more
Before leaning on 50396's figures: local microclimates explains what one yard in Ankeny can differ from the 50396 normal, while zone vs. frost date explains why Zone 5b and Ankeny's frost date answer different questions.