Hampton, IA 50441 Frost Dates
50441, near Hampton, IA: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 04/28, roughly 243 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/10, roughly 164 days after the last spring frost.
Hampton 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
Hampton's growing season runs out in roughly 6 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
Why 04/28 isn't a guarantee
04/28 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/13 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/11 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Hampton against the rest of the dataset
About 164 days separate Hampton's last and first frost, putting it 30,921 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within IA, it ranks 581 of 1,042.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 50441: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 5a and Hampton's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Hampton's dates instead of trusting one.