La Motte, IA 52054 Frost Dates
La Motte, IA: when does the frost end?
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 04/28, roughly 243 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/11, roughly 165 days after the last spring frost.
La Motte 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 La Motte's first fall frost, a row cover or cold frame is what stretches the last few weeks of harvest here.
Why 04/28 isn't a guarantee
04/28 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 05/12 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
La Motte against the rest of the dataset
About 165 days separate La Motte's last and first frost, putting it 30,748 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within IA, it ranks 549 of 1,042.
Learn more
Before leaning on 52054's figures: zone vs. frost date explains why Zone 5a and La Motte's frost date answer different questions, while the frost range explains how to read the range around La Motte's dates instead of trusting one.