St. Donatus, IA 52071 Frost Dates
St. Donatus, IA: when does the frost end?
The last spring frost here typically falls around 04/28, about 243 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/11, roughly 165 days after the last spring frost.
St. Donatus 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 St. Donatus'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.
St. Donatus against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 165 frost-free days, St. Donatus places 30,774 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within IA, it ranks 561 of 1,042.
Learn more
Before leaning on 52071's figures: local microclimates explains what one yard in St. Donatus can differ from the 52071 normal, while zone vs. frost date explains why Zone 5a and St. Donatus's frost date answer different questions.