Buffalo, SD 57651 Frost Dates
Frost dates for Buffalo, SD, ZIP 57651
Around 05/20 is the usual last spring frost, about 265 days away. The first fall frost typically arrives around 09/19, about 120 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 Buffalo, not a forecast for this year.
What to do before the first frost
Zone 4b around Buffalo has about 3 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.
The actual range around Buffalo's last frost
05/20 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Plant by 05/08 and you're betting against frost in roughly 9 years out of 10. 06/02 is the safer bet, historically only a 1-in-10 chance of frost that late.
How Buffalo compares
At roughly 120 frost-free days, Buffalo places 39,100 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within SD, it ranks 373 of 378.
Learn more
the frost range explains how to read the range around Buffalo's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates explains what one yard in Buffalo can differ from the 57651 normal.