Cathay, ND 58422 Frost Dates
58422, near Cathay, ND: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 05/13, about 258 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 09/28, roughly 139 days after the last spring frost.
Zone 4a (-30 to -25°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 Cathay, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Cathay'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.
The actual range around Cathay's last frost
05/13 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.
Cathay against the rest of the dataset
About 139 days separate Cathay's last and first frost, putting it 37,332 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within ND, it ranks 181 of 405.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 58422: local microclimates, on what one yard in Cathay can differ from the 58422 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 4a and Cathay's frost date answer different questions.