Buffalo, IA 52759 Frost Dates
52759, near Buffalo, IA: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 04/18, about 233 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/22, roughly 184 days after the last spring frost.
Buffalo 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
Buffalo's growing season runs out in roughly 8 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
Why 04/18 isn't a guarantee
04/18 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/04 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/02 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Buffalo against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 184 frost-free days, Buffalo places 23,587 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within IA, it ranks 74 of 1,042.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 52759: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 5b and Buffalo's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Buffalo's dates instead of trusting one.