Hartford, IL 62048 Frost Dates
Hartford, IL: when does the frost end?
Around 04/04 is the usual last spring frost, about 219 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 11/05, roughly 214 days after the last spring frost.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Hartford in Zone 7a (0 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
With roughly 10 weeks until Hartford's first fall frost, a row cover or cold frame is what stretches the last few weeks of harvest here.
The actual range around Hartford's last frost
04/04 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 03/18 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 04/19 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Hartford against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 214 frost-free days, Hartford places 14,280 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within IL, it ranks 23 of 1,548.
Learn more
Before leaning on 62048's figures: zone vs. frost date explains why Zone 7a and Hartford's frost date answer different questions, while the frost range explains how to read the range around Hartford's dates instead of trusting one.