Effingham, IL 62401 Frost Dates
62401, near Effingham, IL: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 04/13, roughly 228 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/22, roughly 190 days after the last spring frost.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Effingham in Zone 6b (-5 to 0°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
Effingham's growing season runs out in roughly 8 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
The actual range around Effingham's last frost
04/13 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/01 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 04/29 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Effingham against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 190 frost-free days, Effingham places 21,086 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within IL, it ranks 503 of 1,548.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 62401: local microclimates, on what one yard in Effingham can differ from the 62401 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 6b and Effingham's frost date answer different questions.