Cherry, IL 61312 Frost Dates
61312, near Cherry, IL: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 04/24, about 239 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/18, roughly 176 days after the last spring frost.
Cherry 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
Cherry'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.
How much risk comes with planting early here
04/24 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/11 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/08 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Cherry against the rest of the dataset
Cherry's growing season runs about 176 days, ranking 26,610 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within IL, it ranks 1,194 of 1,548.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 61312: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 5b and Cherry's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Cherry's dates instead of trusting one.