Arena, WI 53503 Frost Dates
53503, near Arena, WI: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 05/07, about 252 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/01, roughly 148 days after the last spring frost.
Arena sits in USDA Zone 5a (-20 to -15°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
Arena's growing season runs out in roughly 5 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
Why 05/07 isn't a guarantee
05/07 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/22 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/22 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Arena against the rest of the dataset
About 148 days separate Arena's last and first frost, putting it 35,759 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within WI, it ranks 617 of 860.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 53503: local microclimates, on what one yard in Arena can differ from the 53503 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 5a and Arena's frost date answer different questions.