Ranier, MN 56668 Frost Dates
56668, near Ranier, MN: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 05/29, roughly 274 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 09/13, roughly 109 days after the last spring frost.
Ranier sits in USDA Zone 3a (-40 to -35°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
Ranier's growing season runs out in roughly 2 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 Ranier's last frost
05/29 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 05/13 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 06/16 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Ranier against the rest of the dataset
About 109 days separate Ranier's last and first frost, putting it 39,525 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within MN, it ranks 914 of 943.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 56668: local microclimates, on what one yard in Ranier can differ from the 56668 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 3a and Ranier's frost date answer different questions.