Rockford, IA 50468 Frost Dates
50468, near Rockford, IA: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 04/30, roughly 245 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/06, roughly 157 days after the last spring frost.
Rockford 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
Rockford'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.
How much risk comes with planting early here
04/30 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/15 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/14 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Rockford against the rest of the dataset
Rockford's growing season runs about 157 days, ranking 33,406 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within IA, it ranks 844 of 1,042.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 50468: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 5a and Rockford's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Rockford's dates instead of trusting one.