Jenkins, MN 56456 Frost Dates
56456, near Jenkins, MN: the frost window
Around 05/06 is the usual last spring frost, about 251 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/07, roughly 152 days after the last spring frost.
Jenkins sits in USDA Zone 4a (-30 to -25°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
Jenkins'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.
Why 05/06 isn't a guarantee
05/06 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/26 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/19 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Jenkins against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 152 frost-free days, Jenkins places 34,861 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within MN, it ranks 462 of 943.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 56456: local microclimates, on what one yard in Jenkins can differ from the 56456 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 4a and Jenkins's frost date answer different questions.