Monona, WI 53713 Frost Dates
53713, near Monona, WI: the frost window
Around 05/01 is the usual last spring frost, about 246 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/09, roughly 161 days after the last spring frost.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Monona in Zone 5a (-20 to -15°F average annual minimum); frost dates are NOAA's 1991-2020 station normal, not this year's forecast.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Monona's growing season runs out in roughly 6 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
The actual range around Monona's last frost
05/01 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/18 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/17 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Monona against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 161 frost-free days, Monona places 32,005 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within WI, it ranks 319 of 860.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 53713: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 5a and Monona's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Monona's dates instead of trusting one.