Columbus City, IA 52738 Frost Dates
Columbus City, IA: when does the frost end?
The last spring frost here typically falls around 04/26, about 241 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/10, roughly 167 days after the last spring frost.
Zone 5b (-15 to -10°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 Columbus City, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
With roughly 6 weeks until Columbus City's first fall frost, a row cover or cold frame is what stretches the last few weeks of harvest here.
The actual range around Columbus City's last frost
04/26 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/11 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.
Columbus City against the rest of the dataset
About 167 days separate Columbus City's last and first frost, putting it 30,161 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within IA, it ranks 426 of 1,042.
Learn more
Before leaning on 52738's figures: local microclimates explains what one yard in Columbus City can differ from the 52738 normal, while zone vs. frost date explains why Zone 5b and Columbus City's frost date answer different questions.