Wilton, IA 52760 Frost Dates
52760, near Wilton, IA: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 04/18, roughly 233 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/22, roughly 184 days after the last spring frost.
Wilton 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
Wilton'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.
Wilton against the rest of the dataset
Wilton's growing season runs about 184 days, ranking 23,549 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within IA, it ranks 69 of 1,042.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 52760: the frost range, on how to read the range around Wilton's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Wilton can differ from the 52760 normal.