Stockton, MN 55988 Frost Dates
55988, near Stockton, MN: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 04/23, roughly 238 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/21, roughly 180 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 Stockton, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Stockton's growing season runs out in roughly 8 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
Why 04/23 isn't a guarantee
04/23 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/07 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/06 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Stockton against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 180 frost-free days, Stockton places 24,978 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within MN, it ranks 6 of 943.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 55988: local microclimates, on what one yard in Stockton can differ from the 55988 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 5a and Stockton's frost date answer different questions.