Cantril, IA 52542 Frost Dates
Cantril, IA: when does the frost end?
Around 04/26 is the usual last spring frost, about 241 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/13, roughly 169 days after the last spring frost.
Zone 6a (-10 to -5°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 Cantril, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
With roughly 7 weeks until Cantril's first fall frost, a row cover or cold frame is what stretches the last few weeks of harvest here.
How much risk comes with planting early here
04/26 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/10 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.
Cantril against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 169 frost-free days, Cantril places 29,604 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within IA, it ranks 354 of 1,042.
Learn more
Before leaning on 52542's figures: the frost range explains how to read the range around Cantril's dates instead of trusting one, while local microclimates explains what one yard in Cantril can differ from the 52542 normal.