Preston, IA 52069 Frost Dates
52069, near Preston, IA: the frost window
Around 04/25 is the usual last spring frost, about 240 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/14, roughly 171 days after the last spring frost.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Preston in Zone 5a (-20 to -15°F average annual minimum); frost dates are NOAA's 1991-2020 station normal, not this year's forecast.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Preston'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.
The actual range around Preston's last frost
04/25 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/11 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/09 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Preston against the rest of the dataset
About 171 days separate Preston's last and first frost, putting it 28,735 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within IA, it ranks 285 of 1,042.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 52069: the frost range, on how to read the range around Preston's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Preston can differ from the 52069 normal.