University Park, IA 52595 Frost Dates
52595, near University Park, IA: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 04/21, roughly 236 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/16, roughly 176 days after the last spring frost.
University Park 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
University Park'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.
The actual range around University Park's last frost
04/21 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/08 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/04 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
University Park against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 176 frost-free days, University Park places 26,602 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within IA, it ranks 152 of 1,042.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 52595: the frost range, on how to read the range around University Park's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in University Park can differ from the 52595 normal.