Lake Villa, IL 60046 Frost Dates
60046, near Lake Villa, IL: the frost window
Around 04/24 is the usual last spring frost, about 239 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/23, roughly 180 days after the last spring frost.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Lake Villa in Zone 5b (-15 to -10°F average annual minimum); frost dates are NOAA's 1991-2020 station normal, not this year's forecast.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Lake Villa'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.
How much risk comes with planting early here
04/24 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 05/09 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Lake Villa against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 180 frost-free days, Lake Villa places 24,825 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within IL, it ranks 955 of 1,548.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 60046: local microclimates, on what one yard in Lake Villa can differ from the 60046 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 5b and Lake Villa's frost date answer different questions.