Carpenter, IA 50426 Frost Dates
50426, near Carpenter, IA: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 05/04, about 249 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/04, roughly 152 days after the last spring frost.
Carpenter sits in USDA Zone 5a (-20 to -15°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
Carpenter's growing season runs out in roughly 5 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
Why 05/04 isn't a guarantee
05/04 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/21 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/16 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Carpenter against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 152 frost-free days, Carpenter places 34,917 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within IA, it ranks 964 of 1,042.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 50426: the frost range, on how to read the range around Carpenter's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Carpenter can differ from the 50426 normal.