La Crosse, WI 54603 Frost Dates
54603, near La Crosse, WI: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 04/23, about 238 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/17, roughly 177 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 La Crosse, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
La Crosse'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.
How much risk comes with planting early here
04/23 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/09 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/06 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
La Crosse against the rest of the dataset
La Crosse's growing season runs about 177 days, ranking 25,998 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within WI, it ranks 72 of 860.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 54603: local microclimates, on what one yard in La Crosse can differ from the 54603 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 5a and La Crosse's frost date answer different questions.