Ainsworth, IA 52201 Frost Dates
52201, near Ainsworth, IA: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 04/26, about 241 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/10, roughly 167 days after the last spring frost.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Ainsworth in Zone 5b (-15 to -10°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
Ainsworth's growing season runs out in roughly 6 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 Ainsworth's last frost
04/26 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 05/11 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Ainsworth against the rest of the dataset
About 167 days separate Ainsworth's last and first frost, putting it 30,142 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within IA, it ranks 423 of 1,042.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 52201: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 5b and Ainsworth's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Ainsworth's dates instead of trusting one.