Rio, WI 53960 Frost Dates
Rio, WI: when does the frost end?
Around 05/04 is the usual last spring frost, about 249 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/06, roughly 154 days after the last spring frost.
Rio 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
With roughly 6 weeks until Rio's first fall frost, a row cover or cold frame is what stretches the last few weeks of harvest here.
How much risk comes with planting early here
05/04 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/20 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/18 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Rio against the rest of the dataset
About 154 days separate Rio's last and first frost, putting it 34,374 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within WI, it ranks 493 of 860.
Learn more
Before leaning on 53960's figures: zone vs. frost date explains why Zone 5a and Rio's frost date answer different questions, while the frost range explains how to read the range around Rio's dates instead of trusting one.