Dousman, WI 53118 Frost Dates
53118, near Dousman, WI: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 05/03, roughly 248 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/09, roughly 157 days after the last spring frost.
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 Dousman, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Dousman's growing season runs out in roughly 6 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
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 04/18 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/21 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Dousman against the rest of the dataset
Dousman's growing season runs about 157 days, ranking 33,327 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within WI, it ranks 391 of 860.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 53118: local microclimates, on what one yard in Dousman can differ from the 53118 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 5b and Dousman's frost date answer different questions.