Apple Valley, MN 55068 Frost Dates
55068, near Apple Valley, MN: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 05/02, roughly 247 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/05, roughly 155 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 Apple Valley, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Apple Valley'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.
The actual range around Apple Valley's last frost
05/02 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/19 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/16 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Apple Valley against the rest of the dataset
Apple Valley's growing season runs about 155 days, ranking 33,916 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within MN, it ranks 346 of 943.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 55068: local microclimates, on what one yard in Apple Valley can differ from the 55068 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 5a and Apple Valley's frost date answer different questions.