Columbus, IL 62338 Frost Dates
Columbus, 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 10/23, roughly 191 days after the last spring frost.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Columbus in Zone 6a (-10 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 8 weeks until Columbus's first fall frost, a row cover or cold frame is what stretches the last few weeks of harvest here.
The actual range around Columbus's last frost
04/14 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 03/30 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/01 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Columbus against the rest of the dataset
About 191 days separate Columbus's last and first frost, putting it 20,942 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within IL, it ranks 481 of 1,548.
Learn more
Before leaning on 62338's figures: the frost range explains how to read the range around Columbus's dates instead of trusting one, while local microclimates explains what one yard in Columbus can differ from the 62338 normal.