Milwaukee, WI 53233 Frost Dates
Frost dates for Milwaukee, WI, ZIP 53233
Around 04/26 is the usual last spring frost, about 241 days away. The first fall frost typically arrives around 10/22, about 177 frost-free days later.
Zone 6a (-10 to -5°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 Milwaukee, not a forecast for this year.
What to do before the first frost
Zone 6a around Milwaukee has about 8 weeks left before the first fall frost — that's the usual window to get a cold frame up if you want to keep harvesting past it.
How much risk comes with planting early here
04/26 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Plant by 04/12 and you're betting against frost in roughly 9 years out of 10. 05/12 is the safer bet, historically only a 1-in-10 chance of frost that late.
How Milwaukee compares
At roughly 177 frost-free days, Milwaukee places 25,954 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within WI, it ranks 64 of 860.
Learn more
the frost range explains how to read the range around Milwaukee's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates explains what one yard in Milwaukee can differ from the 53233 normal.