FrostDateCheck

Arlington, SD 57212 Frost Dates

Frost dates for Arlington, SD, ZIP 57212

Zone 4b

Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 05/03, roughly 248 days out. The first fall frost typically arrives around 10/02, about 151 frost-free days later.

Zone 4b (-25 to -20°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 Arlington, not a forecast for this year.

What to do before the first frost

Zone 4b around Arlington has about 5 weeks left before the first fall frost — that's the usual window to get a cold frame up if you want to keep harvesting past it.

How much risk comes with planting early here

05/03 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Plant by 04/21 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 Arlington compares

At roughly 151 frost-free days, Arlington places 35,100 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within SD, it ranks 148 of 378.

Learn more

zone vs. frost date explains why Zone 4b and Arlington's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range explains how to read the range around Arlington's dates instead of trusting one.