Salem, IA 52649 Frost Dates
Frost dates for Salem, IA, ZIP 52649
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 04/30, roughly 245 days out. The first fall frost typically arrives around 10/10, about 163 frost-free days later.
Salem sits in USDA Zone 6a (-10 to -5°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.
What to do before the first frost
Zone 6a around Salem 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.
How much risk comes with planting early here
04/30 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Plant by 04/13 and you're betting against frost in roughly 9 years out of 10. 05/14 is the safer bet, historically only a 1-in-10 chance of frost that late.
How Salem compares
At roughly 163 frost-free days, Salem places 31,523 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within IA, it ranks 677 of 1,042.
Learn more
the frost range explains how to read the range around Salem's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates explains what one yard in Salem can differ from the 52649 normal.