Manchester, IA 52057 Frost Dates
Manchester, 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.
Manchester 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 5 weeks until Manchester'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.
Manchester against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 154 frost-free days, Manchester places 34,266 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within IA, it ranks 894 of 1,042.
Learn more
Before leaning on 52057's figures: zone vs. frost date explains why Zone 5a and Manchester's frost date answer different questions, while the frost range explains how to read the range around Manchester's dates instead of trusting one.