Dundee, IA 52038 Frost Dates
Dundee, IA: when does the frost end?
Around 05/03 is the usual last spring frost, about 248 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/04, roughly 154 days after the last spring frost.
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 Dundee, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
With roughly 5 weeks until Dundee'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
05/03 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/18 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/16 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Dundee against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 154 frost-free days, Dundee places 34,456 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within IA, it ranks 911 of 1,042.
Learn more
Before leaning on 52038's figures: the frost range explains how to read the range around Dundee's dates instead of trusting one, while local microclimates explains what one yard in Dundee can differ from the 52038 normal.