Artesian, SD 57337 Frost Dates
Artesian, SD: when does the frost end?
Around 05/05 is the usual last spring frost, about 250 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/02, roughly 149 days after the last spring frost.
Artesian sits in USDA Zone 5a (-20 to -15°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
With roughly 5 weeks until Artesian's first fall frost, a row cover or cold frame is what stretches the last few weeks of harvest here.
How much risk comes with planting early here
05/05 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/24 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/18 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Artesian against the rest of the dataset
About 149 days separate Artesian's last and first frost, putting it 35,590 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within SD, it ranks 188 of 378.
Learn more
Before leaning on 57337's figures: the frost range explains how to read the range around Artesian's dates instead of trusting one, while local microclimates explains what one yard in Artesian can differ from the 57337 normal.