Hardy, IA 50545 Frost Dates
50545, near Hardy, IA: the frost window
Around 04/26 is the usual last spring frost, about 241 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/12, roughly 169 days after the last spring frost.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Hardy in Zone 5a (-20 to -15°F average annual minimum); frost dates are NOAA's 1991-2020 station normal, not this year's forecast.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Hardy'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.
The actual range around Hardy's last frost
04/26 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/11 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/07 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Hardy against the rest of the dataset
Hardy's growing season runs about 169 days, ranking 29,634 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within IA, it ranks 364 of 1,042.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 50545: the frost range, on how to read the range around Hardy's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Hardy can differ from the 50545 normal.