Conrad, IA 50621 Frost Dates
50621, near Conrad, 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 159 days after the last spring frost.
Conrad 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
Conrad'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 05/12 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Conrad against the rest of the dataset
Conrad's growing season runs about 159 days, ranking 32,697 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within IA, it ranks 784 of 1,042.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 50621: local microclimates, on what one yard in Conrad can differ from the 50621 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 5a and Conrad's frost date answer different questions.