North Utica, IL 61373 Frost Dates
61373, near North Utica, 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.
North Utica 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
North Utica'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.
North Utica against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 176 frost-free days, North Utica places 26,517 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within IL, it ranks 1,182 of 1,548.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 61373: local microclimates, on what one yard in North Utica can differ from the 61373 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 5b and North Utica's frost date answer different questions.