Sciota, IL 61475 Frost Dates
Sciota, IL: when does the frost end?
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 04/17, roughly 232 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/22, roughly 185 days after the last spring frost.
Sciota 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
With roughly 8 weeks until Sciota's first fall frost, a row cover or cold frame is what stretches the last few weeks of harvest here.
Why 04/17 isn't a guarantee
04/17 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/04 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/02 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Sciota against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 185 frost-free days, Sciota places 23,370 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within IL, it ranks 861 of 1,548.
Learn more
Before leaning on 61475's figures: local microclimates explains what one yard in Sciota can differ from the 61475 normal, while zone vs. frost date explains why Zone 5b and Sciota's frost date answer different questions.