Bedford, IA 50833 Frost Dates
50833, near Bedford, IA: the frost window
Around 04/25 is the usual last spring frost, about 240 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/11, roughly 168 days after the last spring frost.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Bedford in Zone 5b (-15 to -10°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
Bedford'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 Bedford's last frost
04/25 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.
Bedford against the rest of the dataset
Bedford's growing season runs about 168 days, ranking 29,733 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within IA, it ranks 375 of 1,042.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 50833: the frost range, on how to read the range around Bedford's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Bedford can differ from the 50833 normal.