FrostDateCheck

West Bend, WI 53095 Frost Dates

West Bend, WI: when does the frost end?

Zone 5b

Around 05/01 is the usual last spring frost, about 246 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/12, roughly 161 days after the last spring frost.

West Bend 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 West Bend's first fall frost, a row cover or cold frame is what stretches the last few weeks of harvest here.

How much risk comes with planting early here

05/01 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 05/18 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.

West Bend against the rest of the dataset

West Bend's growing season runs about 161 days, ranking 31,965 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within WI, it ranks 308 of 860.

Learn more

Before leaning on 53095's figures: zone vs. frost date explains why Zone 5b and West Bend's frost date answer different questions, while the frost range explains how to read the range around West Bend's dates instead of trusting one.