Lester Prairie, MN 55354 Frost Dates
55354, near Lester Prairie, MN: the frost window
Around 04/28 is the usual last spring frost, about 243 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/08, roughly 163 days after the last spring frost.
Zone 4b (-25 to -20°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 Lester Prairie, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Lester Prairie's growing season runs out in roughly 6 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
Why 04/28 isn't a guarantee
04/28 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/15 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.
Lester Prairie against the rest of the dataset
Lester Prairie's growing season runs about 163 days, ranking 31,408 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within MN, it ranks 167 of 943.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 55354: local microclimates, on what one yard in Lester Prairie can differ from the 55354 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 4b and Lester Prairie's frost date answer different questions.