Lake City, MN 55041 Frost Dates
55041, near Lake City, MN: the frost window
Around 05/07 is the usual last spring frost, about 252 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/02, roughly 148 days after the last spring frost.
Lake City sits in USDA Zone 4b (-25 to -20°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
Lake City'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.
Why 05/07 isn't a guarantee
05/07 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/24 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/22 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Lake City against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 148 frost-free days, Lake City places 35,707 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within MN, it ranks 581 of 943.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 55041: local microclimates, on what one yard in Lake City can differ from the 55041 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 4b and Lake City's frost date answer different questions.