Francis Creek, WI 54214 Frost Dates
54214, near Francis Creek, WI: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 04/27, roughly 242 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/21, roughly 175 days after the last spring frost.
Zone 5b (-15 to -10°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 Francis Creek, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Francis Creek's growing season runs out in roughly 8 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
Why 04/27 isn't a guarantee
04/27 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 05/10 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Francis Creek against the rest of the dataset
Francis Creek's growing season runs about 175 days, ranking 27,141 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within WI, it ranks 90 of 860.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 54214: the frost range, on how to read the range around Francis Creek's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Francis Creek can differ from the 54214 normal.