Wapella, IL 61777 Frost Dates
61777, near Wapella, IL: the frost window
Around 04/20 is the usual last spring frost, about 235 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/16, roughly 179 days after the last spring frost.
Wapella 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
Wapella'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
04/20 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 05/04 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Wapella against the rest of the dataset
About 179 days separate Wapella's last and first frost, putting it 25,446 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within IL, it ranks 1,055 of 1,548.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 61777: local microclimates, on what one yard in Wapella can differ from the 61777 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 6a and Wapella's frost date answer different questions.