West Chester, IA 52359 Frost Dates
Frost dates for West Chester, IA, ZIP 52359
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 04/28, roughly 243 days out. The first fall frost typically arrives around 10/09, about 164 frost-free days later.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts West Chester in Zone 5b (-15 to -10°F average annual minimum); frost dates are NOAA's 1991-2020 station normal, not this year's forecast.
What to do before the first frost
Zone 5b around West Chester has about 6 weeks left before the first fall frost — that's the usual window to get a cold frame up if you want to keep harvesting past it.
The actual range around West Chester's last frost
04/28 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Plant by 04/14 and you're betting against frost in roughly 9 years out of 10. 05/12 is the safer bet, historically only a 1-in-10 chance of frost that late.
How West Chester compares
At roughly 164 frost-free days, West Chester places 31,225 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within IA, it ranks 641 of 1,042.
Learn more
the frost range explains how to read the range around West Chester's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates explains what one yard in West Chester can differ from the 52359 normal.