Vail, IA 51465 Frost Dates
Vail, IA: when does the frost end?
The last spring frost here typically falls around 04/27, about 242 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/11, roughly 166 days after the last spring frost.
Vail 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 Vail'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
04/27 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/13 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/09 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Vail against the rest of the dataset
About 166 days separate Vail's last and first frost, putting it 30,439 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within IA, it ranks 472 of 1,042.
Learn more
Before leaning on 51465's figures: zone vs. frost date explains why Zone 5a and Vail's frost date answer different questions, while the frost range explains how to read the range around Vail's dates instead of trusting one.