Aurora, IL 60503 Frost Dates
Aurora, IL: when does the frost end?
Around 04/19 is the usual last spring frost, about 234 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/23, roughly 185 days after the last spring frost.
Zone 5b (-15 to -10°F average annual minimum) comes from the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map; the frost dates above are the 1991-2020 normal at the nearest reporting NOAA station for Aurora, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
With roughly 8 weeks until Aurora's first fall frost, a row cover or cold frame is what stretches the last few weeks of harvest here.
Why 04/19 isn't a guarantee
04/19 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/05 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/04 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Aurora against the rest of the dataset
About 185 days separate Aurora's last and first frost, putting it 23,004 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within IL, it ranks 814 of 1,548.
Learn more
Before leaning on 60503's figures: the frost range explains how to read the range around Aurora's dates instead of trusting one, while local microclimates explains what one yard in Aurora can differ from the 60503 normal.