Midland, SD 57562 Frost Dates
57562, near Midland, SD: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 05/12, roughly 257 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 09/28, roughly 138 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 Midland, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Midland's growing season runs out in roughly 4 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
How much risk comes with planting early here
05/12 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/30 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/26 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Midland against the rest of the dataset
Midland's growing season runs about 138 days, ranking 37,475 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within SD, it ranks 334 of 378.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 57562: local microclimates, on what one yard in Midland can differ from the 57562 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 5a and Midland's frost date answer different questions.