Highland Park, IL 60035 Frost Dates
60035, near Highland Park, IL: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 04/26, about 241 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/21, roughly 176 days after the last spring frost.
Highland Park sits in USDA Zone 6a (-10 to -5°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
Highland Park's growing season runs out in roughly 8 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
Why 04/26 isn't a guarantee
04/26 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/11 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/11 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Highland Park against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 176 frost-free days, Highland Park places 26,380 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within IL, it ranks 1,157 of 1,548.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 60035: the frost range, on how to read the range around Highland Park's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Highland Park can differ from the 60035 normal.