Chester, IA 52134 Frost Dates
52134, near Chester, IA: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 05/08, about 253 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/01, roughly 147 days after the last spring frost.
Zone 4b (-25 to -20°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 Chester, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Chester's growing season runs out in roughly 5 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 Chester's last frost
05/08 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/25 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/21 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Chester against the rest of the dataset
About 147 days separate Chester's last and first frost, putting it 35,992 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within IA, it ranks 1,030 of 1,042.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 52134: local microclimates, on what one yard in Chester can differ from the 52134 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 4b and Chester's frost date answer different questions.