Rudd, IA 50471 Frost Dates
When can you plant in Rudd, IA?
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 04/30, roughly 245 days out. The first fall frost typically arrives around 10/09, about 163 frost-free days later.
Rudd 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.
What to do before the first frost
About 6 weeks of growing season left in Rudd before the first fall frost — a cold frame or row cover can stretch harvest weeks past that date.
The actual range around Rudd's last frost
04/30 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Plant by 04/14 and you're betting against frost in roughly 9 years out of 10. 05/12 is the safer bet, historically only a 1-in-10 chance of frost that late.
How Rudd compares
At roughly 163 frost-free days, Rudd places 31,527 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within IA, it ranks 678 of 1,042.
Learn more
zone vs. frost date covers why Zone 5a and Rudd's frost date answer different questions. the frost range covers how to read the range around Rudd's dates instead of trusting one.