Essex, IA 51638 Frost Dates
51638, near Essex, IA: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 04/20, roughly 235 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/17, roughly 179 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 Essex, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Essex'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
04/20 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/05 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/03 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Essex against the rest of the dataset
About 179 days separate Essex's last and first frost, putting it 25,420 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within IA, it ranks 106 of 1,042.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 51638: the frost range, on how to read the range around Essex's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Essex can differ from the 51638 normal.