Elm Grove, WI 53005 Frost Dates
53005, near Elm Grove, WI: the frost window
Around 04/26 is the usual last spring frost, about 241 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/18, roughly 173 days after the last spring frost.
Elm Grove 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
Elm Grove'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.
How much risk comes with planting early here
04/26 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/12 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/12 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Elm Grove against the rest of the dataset
Elm Grove's growing season runs about 173 days, ranking 27,852 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within WI, it ranks 111 of 860.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 53005: the frost range, on how to read the range around Elm Grove's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Elm Grove can differ from the 53005 normal.