Newell, IA 50568 Frost Dates
50568, near Newell, IA: the frost window
Around 04/30 is the usual last spring frost, about 245 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/06, roughly 158 days after the last spring frost.
Zone 5a (-20 to -15°F average annual minimum) comes from the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map; the frost dates above are the 1991-2020 normal at the nearest reporting NOAA station for Newell, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Newell'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 Newell's last frost
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 05/11 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Newell against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 158 frost-free days, Newell places 33,078 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within IA, it ranks 815 of 1,042.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 50568: local microclimates, on what one yard in Newell can differ from the 50568 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 5a and Newell's frost date answer different questions.