Elmwood, IL 61529 Frost Dates
Elmwood, IL: when does the frost end?
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 04/22, roughly 237 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/14, roughly 174 days after the last spring frost.
Zone 5b (-15 to -10°F average annual minimum) comes from the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map; the frost dates above are the 1991-2020 normal at the nearest reporting NOAA station for Elmwood, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
With roughly 7 weeks until Elmwood's first fall frost, a row cover or cold frame is what stretches the last few weeks of harvest here.
How much risk comes with planting early here
04/22 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/08 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/06 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Elmwood against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 174 frost-free days, Elmwood places 27,500 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within IL, it ranks 1,247 of 1,548.
Learn more
Before leaning on 61529's figures: the frost range explains how to read the range around Elmwood's dates instead of trusting one, while local microclimates explains what one yard in Elmwood can differ from the 61529 normal.