FrostDateCheck

Lancaster, WI 53824 Frost Dates

53824, near Lancaster, WI: the frost window

Zone 5a

Around 04/27 is the usual last spring frost, about 242 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/11, roughly 166 days after the last spring frost.

The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Lancaster 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

Lancaster'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 Lancaster's last frost

04/27 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/11 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/11 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.

Lancaster against the rest of the dataset

At roughly 166 frost-free days, Lancaster places 30,370 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within WI, it ranks 177 of 860.

Learn more

Two guides worth reading on 53824: local microclimates, on what one yard in Lancaster can differ from the 53824 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 5a and Lancaster's frost date answer different questions.