Forest City, IL 61532 Frost Dates
61532, near Forest City, IL: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 04/17, about 232 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/19, roughly 185 days after the last spring frost.
Forest City sits in USDA Zone 6a (-10 to -5°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
Forest City'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 04/17 isn't a guarantee
04/17 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/02 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/03 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Forest City against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 185 frost-free days, Forest City places 23,341 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within IL, it ranks 851 of 1,548.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 61532: the frost range, on how to read the range around Forest City's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Forest City can differ from the 61532 normal.