FrostDateCheck

Pomeroy, IA 50575 Frost Dates

50575, near Pomeroy, IA: the frost window

Zone 5a

The last spring frost here typically falls around 04/26, about 241 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/10, roughly 167 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 Pomeroy, not a forecast for this year.

Stretching the season past the first frost

Pomeroy'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

04/26 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 05/06 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.

Pomeroy against the rest of the dataset

About 167 days separate Pomeroy's last and first frost, putting it 30,141 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within IA, it ranks 422 of 1,042.

Learn more

Two guides worth reading on 50575: local microclimates, on what one yard in Pomeroy can differ from the 50575 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 5a and Pomeroy's frost date answer different questions.