Garretson, SD 57030 Frost Dates
57030, near Garretson, SD: the frost window
Around 05/01 is the usual last spring frost, about 246 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/04, roughly 155 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 Garretson, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Garretson's growing season runs out in roughly 5 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
05/01 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 05/15 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Garretson against the rest of the dataset
About 155 days separate Garretson's last and first frost, putting it 34,038 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within SD, it ranks 101 of 378.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 57030: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 5a and Garretson's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Garretson's dates instead of trusting one.