Arcadia, IA 51430 Frost Dates
Frost dates for Arcadia, IA, ZIP 51430
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 04/27, roughly 242 days out. The first fall frost typically arrives around 10/11, about 166 frost-free days later.
Zone 5a (-20 to -15°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 Arcadia, not a forecast for this year.
What to do before the first frost
Zone 5a around Arcadia 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.
How much risk comes with planting early here
04/27 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Plant by 04/13 and you're betting against frost in roughly 9 years out of 10. 05/09 is the safer bet, historically only a 1-in-10 chance of frost that late.
How Arcadia compares
At roughly 166 frost-free days, Arcadia places 30,428 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within IA, it ranks 469 of 1,042.
Learn more
local microclimates explains what one yard in Arcadia can differ from the 51430 normal, and zone vs. frost date explains why Zone 5a and Arcadia's frost date answer different questions.