Creston, IA 50801 Frost Dates
Frost dates for Creston, IA, ZIP 50801
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 04/25, roughly 240 days out. The first fall frost typically arrives around 10/12, about 170 frost-free days later.
Zone 5b (-15 to -10°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 Creston, not a forecast for this year.
What to do before the first frost
Zone 5b around Creston has about 6 weeks left before the first fall frost — that's the usual window to get a cold frame up if you want to keep harvesting past it.
The actual range around Creston's last frost
04/25 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Plant by 04/12 and you're betting against frost in roughly 9 years out of 10. 05/07 is the safer bet, historically only a 1-in-10 chance of frost that late.
How Creston compares
About 170 days separate Creston's last and first frost, putting it 28,957 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within IA, it ranks 295 of 1,042.
Learn more
zone vs. frost date explains why Zone 5b and Creston's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range explains how to read the range around Creston's dates instead of trusting one.