Peoria, IL 61638 Frost Dates
61638, near Peoria, IL: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 04/16, roughly 231 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/23, roughly 189 days after the last spring frost.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Peoria in Zone 5b (-15 to -10°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
Peoria'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.
The actual range around Peoria's last frost
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.
Peoria against the rest of the dataset
Peoria's growing season runs about 189 days, ranking 21,389 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within IL, it ranks 566 of 1,548.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 61638: the frost range, on how to read the range around Peoria's dates instead of trusting one, and local microclimates, on what one yard in Peoria can differ from the 61638 normal.