Orion, IL 61273 Frost Dates
61273, near Orion, 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 10/18, roughly 176 days after the last spring frost.
Orion 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.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Orion'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 04/24 isn't a guarantee
04/24 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/09 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.
Orion against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 176 frost-free days, Orion places 26,498 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within IL, it ranks 1,180 of 1,548.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 61273: local microclimates, on what one yard in Orion can differ from the 61273 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 5b and Orion's frost date answer different questions.