Chicago, IL 60612 Frost Dates
Frost dates for Chicago, IL, ZIP 60612
The last spring frost here typically falls around 04/10, about 225 days from today. The first fall frost typically arrives around 11/05, about 208 frost-free days later.
Chicago sits in USDA Zone 6a (-10 to -5°F average annual minimum). The dates above are NOAA's 1991-2020 normal at the nearest reporting station, a 30-year average, not a forecast.
What to do before the first frost
Zone 6a around Chicago has about 10 weeks left before the first fall frost — that's the usual window to get a cold frame up if you want to keep harvesting past it.
The actual range around Chicago's last frost
04/10 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Plant by 03/29 and you're betting against frost in roughly 9 years out of 10. 04/25 is the safer bet, historically only a 1-in-10 chance of frost that late.
How Chicago compares
At roughly 208 frost-free days, Chicago places 15,465 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within IL, it ranks 61 of 1,548.
Learn more
the frost range explains how to read the range around Chicago's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates explains what one yard in Chicago can differ from the 60612 normal.