Waukesha, WI 53187 Frost Dates
53187, near Waukesha, WI: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 05/01, about 246 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/13, roughly 162 days after the last spring frost.
Waukesha 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
Waukesha'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
05/01 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 05/18 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Waukesha against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 162 frost-free days, Waukesha places 31,592 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within WI, it ranks 247 of 860.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 53187: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 5b and Waukesha's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Waukesha's dates instead of trusting one.