Colton, SD 57041 Frost Dates
Colton, SD: when does the frost end?
The last spring frost here typically falls around 05/01, about 246 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/06, roughly 157 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 Colton, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
With roughly 6 weeks until Colton's first fall frost, a row cover or cold frame is what stretches the last few weeks of harvest here.
The actual range around Colton's last frost
05/01 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/18 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/14 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Colton against the rest of the dataset
About 157 days separate Colton's last and first frost, putting it 33,409 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within SD, it ranks 78 of 378.
Learn more
Before leaning on 57041's figures: the frost range explains how to read the range around Colton's dates instead of trusting one, while local microclimates explains what one yard in Colton can differ from the 57041 normal.