Parnell, IA 52325 Frost Dates
52325, near Parnell, IA: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 04/28, about 243 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/09, roughly 164 days after the last spring frost.
Zone 5b (-15 to -10°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 Parnell, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Parnell'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 Parnell's last frost
04/28 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/14 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.
Parnell against the rest of the dataset
About 164 days separate Parnell's last and first frost, putting it 31,215 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within IA, it ranks 639 of 1,042.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 52325: the frost range, on how to read the range around Parnell's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Parnell can differ from the 52325 normal.