Whiting, IA 51063 Frost Dates
51063, near Whiting, IA: the frost window
Around 05/01 is the usual last spring frost, about 246 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/03, roughly 154 days after the last spring frost.
Whiting 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
Whiting's growing season runs out in roughly 5 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 Whiting's last frost
05/01 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/19 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/13 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Whiting against the rest of the dataset
Whiting's growing season runs about 154 days, ranking 34,390 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within IA, it ranks 900 of 1,042.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 51063: the frost range, on how to read the range around Whiting's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Whiting can differ from the 51063 normal.