Pekin, IL 61558 Frost Dates
61558, near Pekin, IL: the frost window
Around 04/16 is the usual last spring frost, about 231 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/23, roughly 189 days after the last spring frost.
Pekin 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
Pekin's growing season runs out in roughly 8 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
04/16 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 05/04 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Pekin against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 189 frost-free days, Pekin places 21,410 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within IL, it ranks 571 of 1,548.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 61558: the frost range, on how to read the range around Pekin's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Pekin can differ from the 61558 normal.