Elkhart Lake, WI 53020 Frost Dates
Elkhart Lake, WI: when does the frost end?
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 05/03, roughly 248 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/10, roughly 159 days after the last spring frost.
Elkhart Lake 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
With roughly 6 weeks until Elkhart Lake's first fall frost, a row cover or cold frame is what stretches the last few weeks of harvest here.
Why 05/03 isn't a guarantee
05/03 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/19 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/20 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Elkhart Lake against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 159 frost-free days, Elkhart Lake places 32,696 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within WI, it ranks 354 of 860.
Learn more
Before leaning on 53020's figures: zone vs. frost date explains why Zone 5b and Elkhart Lake's frost date answer different questions, while the frost range explains how to read the range around Elkhart Lake's dates instead of trusting one.