Howard, SD 57076 Frost Dates
57076, near Howard, SD: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 05/06, about 251 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/03, roughly 151 days after the last spring frost.
Howard sits in USDA Zone 4b (-25 to -20°F average annual minimum). The dates above are NOAA's 1991-2020 normal at the nearest reporting station, a 30-year average, not a forecast.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Howard'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.
The actual range around Howard's last frost
05/06 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/23 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/17 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Howard against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 151 frost-free days, Howard places 35,104 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within SD, it ranks 150 of 378.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 57076: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 4b and Howard's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Howard's dates instead of trusting one.