Salem, SD 57058 Frost Dates
When can you plant in Salem, SD?
Around 05/03 is the usual last spring frost, about 248 days away. The first fall frost typically arrives around 10/04, about 153 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 Salem, not a forecast for this year.
What to do before the first frost
About 5 weeks of growing season left in Salem before the first fall frost — a cold frame or row cover can stretch harvest weeks past that date.
The actual range around Salem's last frost
05/03 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Plant by 04/20 and you're betting against frost in roughly 9 years out of 10. 05/15 is the safer bet, historically only a 1-in-10 chance of frost that late.
How Salem compares
At roughly 153 frost-free days, Salem places 34,561 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within SD, it ranks 111 of 378.
Learn more
the frost range covers how to read the range around Salem's dates instead of trusting one. local microclimates covers what one yard in Salem can differ from the 57058 normal.