Baker, MT 59313 Frost Dates
59313, near Baker, MT: the frost window
Around 05/16 is the usual last spring frost, about 261 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 09/26, roughly 132 days after the last spring frost.
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 Baker, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Baker'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 Baker's last frost
05/16 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 05/04 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/29 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Baker against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 132 frost-free days, Baker places 38,203 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within MT, it ranks 121 of 392.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 59313: local microclimates, on what one yard in Baker can differ from the 59313 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 4b and Baker's frost date answer different questions.