North Chicago, IL 60088 Frost Dates
North Chicago, IL: when does the frost end?
Around 04/30 is the usual last spring frost, about 245 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/19, roughly 170 days after the last spring frost.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts North Chicago in Zone 6a (-10 to -5°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
With roughly 7 weeks until North Chicago's first fall frost, a row cover or cold frame is what stretches the last few weeks of harvest here.
The actual range around North Chicago's last frost
04/30 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/15 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/14 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
North Chicago against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 170 frost-free days, North Chicago places 28,898 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within IL, it ranks 1,385 of 1,548.
Learn more
Before leaning on 60088's figures: the frost range explains how to read the range around North Chicago's dates instead of trusting one, while local microclimates explains what one yard in North Chicago can differ from the 60088 normal.