Bonaparte, IA 52620 Frost Dates
52620, near Bonaparte, IA: the frost window
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.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Bonaparte in Zone 6a (-10 to -5°F average annual minimum); frost dates are NOAA's 1991-2020 station normal, not this year's forecast.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Bonaparte'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 Bonaparte's last frost
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.
Bonaparte against the rest of the dataset
Bonaparte's growing season runs about 169 days, ranking 29,589 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within IA, it ranks 346 of 1,042.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 52620: the frost range, on how to read the range around Bonaparte's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Bonaparte can differ from the 52620 normal.