Lostant, IL 61334 Frost Dates
61334, near Lostant, IL: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 04/24, roughly 239 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/18, roughly 176 days after the last spring frost.
Lostant 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
Lostant'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 04/11 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.
Lostant against the rest of the dataset
Lostant's growing season runs about 176 days, ranking 26,607 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within IL, it ranks 1,193 of 1,548.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 61334: the frost range, on how to read the range around Lostant's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Lostant can differ from the 61334 normal.