Yorktown, IA 51603 Frost Dates
When can you plant in Yorktown, IA?
Around 04/25 is the usual last spring frost, about 240 days away. The first fall frost typically arrives around 10/11, about 168 frost-free days later.
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 Yorktown, not a forecast for this year.
What to do before the first frost
About 6 weeks of growing season left in Yorktown before the first fall frost — a cold frame or row cover can stretch harvest weeks past that date.
The actual range around Yorktown's last frost
04/25 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Plant by 04/11 and you're betting against frost in roughly 9 years out of 10. 05/07 is the safer bet, historically only a 1-in-10 chance of frost that late.
How Yorktown compares
At roughly 168 frost-free days, Yorktown places 29,821 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within IA, it ranks 409 of 1,042.
Learn more
local microclimates covers what one yard in Yorktown can differ from the 51603 normal. zone vs. frost date covers why Zone 5b and Yorktown's frost date answer different questions.