Waunakee, WI 53597 Frost Dates
Frost dates for Waunakee, WI, ZIP 53597
The last spring frost here typically falls around 05/01, about 246 days from today. The first fall frost typically arrives around 10/10, about 160 frost-free days later.
Zone 5a (-20 to -15°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 Waunakee, not a forecast for this year.
What to do before the first frost
Zone 5a around Waunakee has about 6 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.
Why 05/01 isn't a guarantee
05/01 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Plant by 04/16 and you're betting against frost in roughly 9 years out of 10. 05/16 is the safer bet, historically only a 1-in-10 chance of frost that late.
How Waunakee compares
At roughly 160 frost-free days, Waunakee places 32,253 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within WI, it ranks 336 of 860.
Learn more
zone vs. frost date explains why Zone 5a and Waunakee's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range explains how to read the range around Waunakee's dates instead of trusting one.