Chillicothe, IL 61562 Frost Dates
61562, near Chillicothe, IL: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 04/20, about 235 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/17, roughly 178 days after the last spring frost.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Chillicothe in Zone 6a (-10 to -5°F average annual minimum); frost dates are NOAA's 1991-2020 station normal, not this year's forecast.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Chillicothe'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.
The actual range around Chillicothe's last frost
04/20 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/05 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/07 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Chillicothe against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 178 frost-free days, Chillicothe places 25,683 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within IL, it ranks 1,078 of 1,548.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 61562: local microclimates, on what one yard in Chillicothe can differ from the 61562 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 6a and Chillicothe's frost date answer different questions.