Crooks, SD 57020 Frost Dates
When can you plant in Crooks, SD?
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 05/01, roughly 246 days out. The first fall frost typically arrives around 10/06, about 157 frost-free days later.
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 Crooks, not a forecast for this year.
What to do before the first frost
About 6 weeks of growing season left in Crooks before the first fall frost — a cold frame or row cover can stretch harvest weeks past that date.
Why 05/01 isn't a guarantee
05/01 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Plant by 04/18 and you're betting against frost in roughly 9 years out of 10. 05/14 is the safer bet, historically only a 1-in-10 chance of frost that late.
How Crooks compares
At roughly 157 frost-free days, Crooks places 33,357 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within SD, it ranks 69 of 378.
Learn more
the frost range covers how to read the range around Crooks's dates instead of trusting one. local microclimates covers what one yard in Crooks can differ from the 57020 normal.