FrostDateCheck

Chadwick, IL 61014 Frost Dates

61014, near Chadwick, IL: the frost window

Zone 5a

Around 05/02 is the usual last spring frost, about 247 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/07, roughly 154 days after the last spring frost.

Chadwick sits in USDA Zone 5a (-20 to -15°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

Chadwick's growing season runs out in roughly 6 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.

How much risk comes with planting early here

05/02 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/18 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/18 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.

Chadwick against the rest of the dataset

At roughly 154 frost-free days, Chadwick places 34,412 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within IL, it ranks 1,548 of 1,548.

Learn more

Two guides worth reading on 61014: the frost range, on how to read the range around Chadwick's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Chadwick can differ from the 61014 normal.