New Athens, IL 62264 Frost Dates
New Athens, IL: when does the frost end?
Around 04/12 is the usual last spring frost, about 227 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/20, roughly 189 days after the last spring frost.
Zone 7a (0 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 New Athens, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
With roughly 8 weeks until New Athens's first fall frost, a row cover or cold frame is what stretches the last few weeks of harvest here.
Why 04/12 isn't a guarantee
04/12 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 03/28 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 04/28 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
New Athens against the rest of the dataset
New Athens's growing season runs about 189 days, ranking 21,612 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within IL, it ranks 611 of 1,548.
Learn more
Before leaning on 62264's figures: local microclimates explains what one yard in New Athens can differ from the 62264 normal, while zone vs. frost date explains why Zone 7a and New Athens's frost date answer different questions.