New Ulm, MN 56073 Frost Dates
56073, near New Ulm, MN: the frost window
Around 04/29 is the usual last spring frost, about 244 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/07, roughly 161 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 New Ulm, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
New Ulm'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
04/29 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 05/12 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
New Ulm against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 161 frost-free days, New Ulm places 31,987 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within MN, it ranks 197 of 943.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 56073: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 5a and New Ulm's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around New Ulm's dates instead of trusting one.