Atkinson, IL 61235 Frost Dates
Atkinson, IL: when does the frost end?
The last spring frost here typically falls around 04/20, about 235 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/20, roughly 180 days after the last spring frost.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Atkinson 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 8 weeks until Atkinson's first fall frost, a row cover or cold frame is what stretches the last few weeks of harvest here.
The actual range around Atkinson's last frost
04/20 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/06 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/06 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Atkinson against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 180 frost-free days, Atkinson places 24,967 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within IL, it ranks 966 of 1,548.
Learn more
Before leaning on 61235's figures: local microclimates explains what one yard in Atkinson can differ from the 61235 normal, while zone vs. frost date explains why Zone 5b and Atkinson's frost date answer different questions.