Madison, WI 53708 Frost Dates
When can you plant in Madison, WI?
Around 05/01 is the usual last spring frost, about 246 days away. The first fall frost typically arrives around 10/09, about 161 frost-free days later.
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 Madison, not a forecast for this year.
What to do before the first frost
About 6 weeks of growing season left in Madison before the first fall frost — a cold frame or row cover can stretch harvest weeks past that date.
The actual range around Madison's last frost
05/01 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Plant by 04/18 and you're betting against frost in roughly 9 years out of 10. 05/17 is the safer bet, historically only a 1-in-10 chance of frost that late.
How Madison compares
At roughly 161 frost-free days, Madison places 31,911 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within WI, it ranks 293 of 860.
Learn more
zone vs. frost date covers why Zone 5b and Madison's frost date answer different questions. the frost range covers how to read the range around Madison's dates instead of trusting one.