Exline, IA 52555 Frost Dates
52555, near Exline, 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 10/14, roughly 168 days after the last spring frost.
Exline sits in USDA Zone 5b (-15 to -10°F average annual minimum). The dates above are NOAA's 1991-2020 normal at the nearest reporting station, a 30-year average, not a forecast.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Exline's growing season runs out in roughly 7 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
Why 04/28 isn't a guarantee
04/28 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/13 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.
Exline against the rest of the dataset
About 168 days separate Exline's last and first frost, putting it 29,801 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within IA, it ranks 400 of 1,042.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 52555: the frost range, on how to read the range around Exline's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Exline can differ from the 52555 normal.