Elliott, IA 51532 Frost Dates
51532, near Elliott, IA: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 04/24, roughly 239 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/13, roughly 169 days after the last spring frost.
Zone 5b (-15 to -10°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 Elliott, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Elliott's growing season runs out in roughly 7 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
How much risk comes with planting early here
04/24 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/10 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/08 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Elliott against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 169 frost-free days, Elliott places 29,591 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within IA, it ranks 348 of 1,042.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 51532: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 5b and Elliott's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Elliott's dates instead of trusting one.