Evanston, IL 60208 Frost Dates
60208, near Evanston, IL: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 04/26, roughly 241 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/21, roughly 176 days after the last spring frost.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Evanston 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
Evanston'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.
The actual range around Evanston's last frost
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.
Evanston against the rest of the dataset
About 176 days separate Evanston's last and first frost, putting it 26,343 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within IL, it ranks 1,147 of 1,548.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 60208: local microclimates, on what one yard in Evanston can differ from the 60208 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 6a and Evanston's frost date answer different questions.