Benton, WI 53803 Frost Dates
53803, near Benton, WI: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 04/30, about 245 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/13, roughly 166 days after the last spring frost.
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 Benton, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Benton's growing season runs out in roughly 7 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
Why 04/30 isn't a guarantee
04/30 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/14 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/13 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Benton against the rest of the dataset
About 166 days separate Benton's last and first frost, putting it 30,413 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within WI, it ranks 183 of 860.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 53803: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 5a and Benton's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Benton's dates instead of trusting one.