Rushford, MN 55971 Frost Dates
55971, near Rushford, MN: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 05/08, roughly 253 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/03, roughly 147 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 Rushford, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Rushford'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 Rushford's last frost
05/08 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/25 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.
Rushford against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 147 frost-free days, Rushford places 35,922 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within MN, it ranks 607 of 943.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 55971: the frost range, on how to read the range around Rushford's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Rushford can differ from the 55971 normal.