Valley Springs, SD 57068 Frost Dates
Valley Springs, 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 Valley Springs, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
With roughly 6 weeks until Valley Springs's first fall frost, a row cover or cold frame is what stretches the last few weeks of harvest here.
Why 05/01 isn't a guarantee
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.
Valley Springs against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 157 frost-free days, Valley Springs places 33,395 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within SD, it ranks 77 of 378.
Learn more
Before leaning on 57068's figures: zone vs. frost date explains why Zone 5a and Valley Springs's frost date answer different questions, while the frost range explains how to read the range around Valley Springs's dates instead of trusting one.