Arnolds Park, IA 51331 Frost Dates
Arnolds Park, IA: when does the frost end?
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 05/01, roughly 246 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/06, roughly 158 days after the last spring frost.
Arnolds Park 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
With roughly 6 weeks until Arnolds Park's first fall frost, a row cover or cold frame is what stretches the last few weeks of harvest here.
How much risk comes with planting early here
05/01 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/17 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/14 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Arnolds Park against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 158 frost-free days, Arnolds Park places 33,054 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within IA, it ranks 812 of 1,042.
Learn more
Before leaning on 51331's figures: local microclimates explains what one yard in Arnolds Park can differ from the 51331 normal, while zone vs. frost date explains why Zone 5a and Arnolds Park's frost date answer different questions.