West Chicago, IL 60185 Frost Dates
West Chicago, IL: when does the frost end?
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 04/27, roughly 242 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/17, roughly 173 days after the last spring frost.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts West Chicago 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
With roughly 7 weeks until West 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 West Chicago's last frost
04/27 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/12 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.
West Chicago against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 173 frost-free days, West Chicago places 27,792 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within IL, it ranks 1,305 of 1,548.
Learn more
Before leaning on 60185's figures: local microclimates explains what one yard in West Chicago can differ from the 60185 normal, while zone vs. frost date explains why Zone 5b and West Chicago's frost date answer different questions.