Joy, IL 61260 Frost Dates
When can you plant in Joy, IL?
Around 04/22 is the usual last spring frost, about 237 days away. The first fall frost typically arrives around 10/19, about 181 frost-free days later.
Joy sits in USDA Zone 5b (-15 to -10°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
About 7 weeks of growing season left in Joy before the first fall frost — a cold frame or row cover can stretch harvest weeks past that date.
The actual range around Joy's last frost
04/22 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Plant by 04/07 and you're betting against frost in roughly 9 years out of 10. 05/06 is the safer bet, historically only a 1-in-10 chance of frost that late.
How Joy compares
At roughly 181 frost-free days, Joy places 24,700 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within IL, it ranks 938 of 1,548.
Learn more
zone vs. frost date covers why Zone 5b and Joy's frost date answer different questions. the frost range covers how to read the range around Joy's dates instead of trusting one.