Milwaukee, WI 53278 Frost Dates
53278, near Milwaukee, WI: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 04/26, about 241 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/22, roughly 177 days after the last spring frost.
Milwaukee sits in USDA Zone 6a (-10 to -5°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
Milwaukee's growing season runs out in roughly 8 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
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.
Milwaukee against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 177 frost-free days, Milwaukee places 25,956 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within WI, it ranks 66 of 860.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 53278: the frost range, on how to read the range around Milwaukee's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Milwaukee can differ from the 53278 normal.