Rib Lake, WI 54490 Frost Dates
54490, near Rib Lake, WI: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 05/11, roughly 256 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/01, roughly 141 days after the last spring frost.
Zone 4a (-30 to -25°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 Rib Lake, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Rib Lake's growing season runs out in roughly 5 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
How much risk comes with planting early here
05/11 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/29 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/26 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Rib Lake against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 141 frost-free days, Rib Lake places 36,950 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within WI, it ranks 710 of 860.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 54490: the frost range, on how to read the range around Rib Lake's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Rib Lake can differ from the 54490 normal.