Wauwatosa, WI 53263 Frost Dates
Wauwatosa, WI: when does the frost end?
Around 04/26 is the usual last spring frost, about 241 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/18, roughly 173 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 Wauwatosa, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
With roughly 7 weeks until Wauwatosa'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
04/26 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/12 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/12 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Wauwatosa against the rest of the dataset
About 173 days separate Wauwatosa's last and first frost, putting it 27,779 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within WI, it ranks 104 of 860.
Learn more
Before leaning on 53263's figures: local microclimates explains what one yard in Wauwatosa can differ from the 53263 normal, while zone vs. frost date explains why Zone 5b and Wauwatosa's frost date answer different questions.