Towanda, IL 61702 Frost Dates
61702, near Towanda, IL: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 04/25, about 240 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/16, roughly 172 days after the last spring frost.
Zone 6a (-10 to -5°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 Towanda, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Towanda'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.
How much risk comes with planting early here
04/25 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/11 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/11 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Towanda against the rest of the dataset
About 172 days separate Towanda's last and first frost, putting it 28,462 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within IL, it ranks 1,355 of 1,548.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 61702: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 6a and Towanda's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Towanda's dates instead of trusting one.