Oblong, IL 62449 Frost Dates
62449, near Oblong, IL: the frost window
The last spring frost here typically falls around 04/12, about 227 days from today. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/22, roughly 193 days after the last spring frost.
Oblong sits in USDA Zone 6b (-5 to 0°F average annual minimum). The dates above are NOAA's 1991-2020 normal at the nearest reporting station, a 30-year average, not a forecast.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Oblong'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.
How much risk comes with planting early here
04/12 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 04/26 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Oblong against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 193 frost-free days, Oblong places 19,984 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within IL, it ranks 402 of 1,548.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 62449: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 6b and Oblong's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Oblong's dates instead of trusting one.