Gillespie, IL 62033 Frost Dates
Gillespie, IL: when does the frost end?
Around 04/14 is the usual last spring frost, about 229 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/21, roughly 188 days after the last spring frost.
Zone 6b (-5 to 0°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 Gillespie, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
With roughly 8 weeks until Gillespie's first fall frost, a row cover or cold frame is what stretches the last few weeks of harvest here.
Why 04/14 isn't a guarantee
04/14 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 03/31 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 04/30 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Gillespie against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 188 frost-free days, Gillespie places 22,047 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within IL, it ranks 679 of 1,548.
Learn more
Before leaning on 62033's figures: the frost range explains how to read the range around Gillespie's dates instead of trusting one, while local microclimates explains what one yard in Gillespie can differ from the 62033 normal.