Sussex, WI 53089 Frost Dates
When can you plant in Sussex, WI?
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 04/30, roughly 245 days out. The first fall frost typically arrives around 10/16, about 167 frost-free days later.
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 Sussex, not a forecast for this year.
What to do before the first frost
About 7 weeks of growing season left in Sussex before the first fall frost — a cold frame or row cover can stretch harvest weeks past that date.
The actual range around Sussex's last frost
04/30 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Plant by 04/16 and you're betting against frost in roughly 9 years out of 10. 05/16 is the safer bet, historically only a 1-in-10 chance of frost that late.
How Sussex compares
At roughly 167 frost-free days, Sussex places 29,906 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within WI, it ranks 154 of 860.
Learn more
local microclimates covers what one yard in Sussex can differ from the 53089 normal. zone vs. frost date covers why Zone 5b and Sussex's frost date answer different questions.