Madison, WI 53792 Frost Dates
53792, near Madison, WI: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 05/01, about 246 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/09, roughly 161 days after the last spring frost.
Madison 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
Madison'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.
Why 05/01 isn't a guarantee
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.
Madison against the rest of the dataset
About 161 days separate Madison's last and first frost, putting it 31,922 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within WI, it ranks 304 of 860.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 53792: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 5a and Madison's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Madison's dates instead of trusting one.