Stewart, MN 55385 Frost Dates
55385, near Stewart, MN: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 04/30, roughly 245 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/04, roughly 156 days after the last spring frost.
Stewart 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
Stewart'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 04/30 isn't a guarantee
04/30 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/17 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/13 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Stewart against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 156 frost-free days, Stewart places 33,785 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within MN, it ranks 334 of 943.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 55385: the frost range, on how to read the range around Stewart's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Stewart can differ from the 55385 normal.