Gibson City, IL 60936 Frost Dates
60936, near Gibson City, IL: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 04/21, about 236 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/17, roughly 178 days after the last spring frost.
Gibson City 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.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Gibson City's growing season runs out in roughly 7 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
Why 04/21 isn't a guarantee
04/21 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/10 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/05 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Gibson City against the rest of the dataset
About 178 days separate Gibson City's last and first frost, putting it 25,715 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within IL, it ranks 1,082 of 1,548.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 60936: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 6a and Gibson City's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Gibson City's dates instead of trusting one.