Dixon, IL 61021 Frost Dates
61021, near Dixon, IL: the frost window
Around 04/24 is the usual last spring frost, about 239 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/14, roughly 172 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 Dixon, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Dixon'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.
The actual range around Dixon's last frost
04/24 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 05/09 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Dixon against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 172 frost-free days, Dixon places 28,207 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within IL, it ranks 1,338 of 1,548.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 61021: the frost range, on how to read the range around Dixon's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Dixon can differ from the 61021 normal.