Lee, IL 60530 Frost Dates
Lee, IL: when does the frost end?
Around 04/28 is the usual last spring frost, about 243 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/10, roughly 163 days after the last spring frost.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Lee 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 6 weeks until Lee's first fall frost, a row cover or cold frame is what stretches the last few weeks of harvest here.
The actual range around Lee's last frost
04/28 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/14 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/13 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Lee against the rest of the dataset
Lee's growing season runs about 163 days, ranking 31,531 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within IL, it ranks 1,528 of 1,548.
Learn more
Before leaning on 60530's figures: zone vs. frost date explains why Zone 5b and Lee's frost date answer different questions, while the frost range explains how to read the range around Lee's dates instead of trusting one.