Dodson, MT 59546 Frost Dates
Dodson, MT: when does the frost end?
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 05/18, roughly 263 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 09/23, roughly 126 days after the last spring frost.
Dodson sits in USDA Zone 4b (-25 to -20°F average annual minimum). The dates above are NOAA's 1991-2020 normal at the nearest reporting station, a 30-year average, not a forecast.
Stretching the season past the first frost
With roughly 4 weeks until Dodson's first fall frost, a row cover or cold frame is what stretches the last few weeks of harvest here.
The actual range around Dodson's last frost
05/18 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 06/01 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Dodson against the rest of the dataset
Dodson's growing season runs about 126 days, ranking 38,732 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within MT, it ranks 167 of 392.
Learn more
Before leaning on 59546's figures: zone vs. frost date explains why Zone 4b and Dodson's frost date answer different questions, while the frost range explains how to read the range around Dodson's dates instead of trusting one.