Spencer, SD 57374 Frost Dates
57374, near Spencer, SD: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 05/05, about 250 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/02, roughly 149 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 Spencer, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Spencer'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 Spencer's last frost
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.
Spencer against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 149 frost-free days, Spencer places 35,589 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within SD, it ranks 187 of 378.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 57374: local microclimates, on what one yard in Spencer can differ from the 57374 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 5a and Spencer's frost date answer different questions.