Richmond, IL 60071 Frost Dates
60071, near Richmond, IL: the frost window
Around 04/30 is the usual last spring frost, about 245 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/13, roughly 164 days after the last spring frost.
Richmond sits in USDA Zone 5b (-15 to -10°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
Richmond's growing season runs out in roughly 7 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
04/30 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/16 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/16 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Richmond against the rest of the dataset
Richmond's growing season runs about 164 days, ranking 30,992 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within IL, it ranks 1,504 of 1,548.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 60071: local microclimates, on what one yard in Richmond can differ from the 60071 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 5b and Richmond's frost date answer different questions.