Kiester, MN 56051 Frost Dates
56051, near Kiester, MN: the frost window
Around 04/30 is the usual last spring frost, about 245 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/06, roughly 158 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 Kiester, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Kiester'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.
How much risk comes with planting early here
04/30 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/16 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/14 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Kiester against the rest of the dataset
Kiester's growing season runs about 158 days, ranking 33,108 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within MN, it ranks 290 of 943.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 56051: local microclimates, on what one yard in Kiester can differ from the 56051 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 5a and Kiester's frost date answer different questions.