Watson, IL 62473 Frost Dates
62473, near Watson, IL: the frost window
Around 04/13 is the usual last spring frost, about 228 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/22, roughly 190 days after the last spring frost.
Zone 6b (-5 to 0°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 Watson, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Watson'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
04/13 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.
Watson against the rest of the dataset
Watson's growing season runs about 190 days, ranking 21,263 of 40,283 US ZIP codes measured here, longest to shortest. Within IL, it ranks 530 of 1,548.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 62473: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 6b and Watson's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around Watson's dates instead of trusting one.